    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [December 18, 1995]
    [Pages 1896-1899]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Vetoing Appropriations Legislation for the Departments of the
    Interior, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development and an
    Exchange With Reporters
    December 18, 1995

        The President. Good morning, everyone. The Republican Congress has
    shut down the Federal Government because they haven't passed a budget
    for this year and because they want to make the price of opening the
    Government up my acceptance of 7 long years of unacceptable cuts in
    health care, education, and the environment, in research and technology,
    cuts that are not necessary to balancing the budget and will have an
    adverse effect on our way of life and on the strength of our economy.
        It is wrong for the Congress to shut the Government down just to
    make a political point the week before Christmas. It is unfair to the
    American people and unfair to the public employees. This is a season of
    peace, and it should

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    be a season of cooperation, not rancor or threats. Congress should
    reopen the Government. I am ready to work with them to balance the
    budget in a way that reflects our values and that is consistent with the
    resolution to which we both agreed when the Government was reopened a
    few weeks ago.
        So I call on Congress to reopen the Government, to come back to the
    negotiating table to resume discussions on finding common ground. We
    have to balance this budget in a way that reflects our values and our
    obligations to our children.
        The ultimate test of any budget is what kind of world it leaves for
    future generations. If we balance the budget without investing in our
    children or protecting their environment, it means we are really
    borrowing from the next generation without ever paying them back.
    Protecting the environment is one of the most important ways to uphold
    this value. We want to pass on to our children the good Earth God gave
    us. We want to give them the opportunity we enjoy. We want to safeguard
    their health. Then any budget must ensure strong protection of the
    environment.
        These science students who are with me today from Jefferson Middle
    School in Virginia have done a lot of work on the environment. They have
    helped to reduce energy use at their school. They have promoted
    recycling at home and at school. They know that the decisions that we
    make today will affect them and our Nation in the future. We owe it to
    them to put partisanship aside and to work in their interest to balance
    the budget in a way that protects the environment.
        I say again, when I agreed a few weeks ago to work with the Congress
    to balance the budget in 7 years, Congress committed to a budget that
    protects the environment. These bills that I have to veto today I do
    because they do not meet that test. For 25 years, leaders of both
    parties have recognized that our country is stronger when we control
    pollution and protect public health. Environmental protection is not, or
    at least it never has been until now, a partisan issue. It's an American
    issue. It's an American issue outside Washington. But Republicans in
    this Congress have attempted to roll back decades of bipartisan
    environmental protection. It's wrong, and I cannot permit it to happen.
        They have sent me legislation that would give our children less
    clean drinking water, less safe food, dirtier air. If I sign these
    bills, I would be condemning more than 10 million children under the age
    of 12 to living near toxic waste sites that might not be cleaned up for
    years. Therefore, in the interest of our children I am vetoing these
    measures because they would cripple these kinds of environmental
    protections.
        The bill that funds the Environmental Protection Agency, for
    example, would cut enforcement by 25 percent and pull the cop from the
    pollution beat. There would be a 45 percent cut in safe-and-clean-
    drinking-water aid to local governments. The bill that funds the
    Department of the Interior would endanger some of our most precious
    natural resources. It would permit clearcutting in the Tongass National
    Forest in Alaska, and it would undercut our newest national park, the
    Mojave National Preserve in California, the largest addition to the park
    system in the lower 48 States.
        I'm vetoing the bills not only because of the impact they have on
    the environment that we leave our children but also because of other
    things they do that violate our values. They completely eliminate the
    national service program, which has been very successful and is broadly
    supported by people across partisan lines and communities all across
    America. They cut innovative programs for economic development in our
    cities, the area which has been left most untouched by the economic
    recovery of the last 3 years. They drastically, drastically, cut
    services for Native Americans, and they cut health care for veterans.
    None of these things are necessary to balance the budget.
        Let me be clear: It is time to finish the job of passing a budget
    for this year, and I am eager to work with the Congress to reach
    agreement on a balanced budget plan. We should be able quickly to reach
    agreement on how to fund the Government for the months to come.
        I have made a specific compromise offer to finish this year's budget
    so we can get the Government working for the people. Then we can resolve
    our larger differences over how best to balance the budget consistent
    with our values. We owe it to our children and their children to do both
    these things. We do need to balance the budget, and I am committed to
    doing it.
        I would remind you that we've cut the budget deficit in half since
    we've been here, and I want to go all the way. But doing things that
    weaken our environment is not the way to balance the budget and is
    directly contradictory

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    to the resolution that both the Congress and I agreed upon just a few
    weeks ago.
        So I'm going to sign the veto messages, and then I'll answer a few
    of your questions.

    [At this point, the President signed the veto messages.]

        Q. Have you been in touch with the Republican leadership today, and
    is there a chance of any kind of a meeting and is there any chance of
    bringing workers back to work?
        The President. Well, I expect to talk to them today, and I look
    forward to that. And I'm going to do what I can to make some suggestions
    about how we can begin our talks. And I hope that they will agree to put
    the Government back in business. That, of course, is a decision within
    their domain. I think it's always a mistake to shut the Government down.
        We should go back to the ordinary, constitutional way of dealing
    with this. I have dealt with them in good faith. I will continue to do
    so. I worked all weekend--continued to work all weekend on budgetary
    matters. I have spent an enormous amount of my time as President trying
    to get rid of the deficit and invest in our future at the same time. We
    have differences of opinion about how to do it, but there's no doubt
    that I want to do it. And I think that this shutting the Government down
    is just wrong. It's not right for the American people, it's not
    necessary, and it's not part of the ordinary, constitutional way of
    doing things around here.
        Q. Mr. President, do you have a 7-year--a new 7-year proposal that
    balances the budget using CBO numbers?
        The President. Well, I want to talk to the leadership, Mr. Blitzer
    [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network], about what we're going to say today,
    and then we'll be glad to answer questions after that.
        Q. When do you think it will happen that you'll talk to them?
        The President. Soon. Pretty soon. I've got to work out the times.
        Q. Are they going to come over here, do you think?
        The President. I don't know.
        Q. Senator Dole says that if he and you and Speaker Gingrich could
    just sit down together for a few hours you could work this problem out
    pretty rapidly.
        The President. I think that is possible. It requires--all three of
    us have to want to. But I want to.
        Q. Why not do it?
        The President. But we've all got to come in, and we've got to be
    flexible and we've got to look at what we're doing. I mean, you know,
    you mentioned the CBO--one of the things that the resolution said was
    that there would be extensive consultation with OMB and with the private
    sector. This budget of theirs now predicts a recession at 7 years. Now,
    how in the world they could know there's going to be one in year 6 and 7
    is beyond me, but I believe if we were to balance the budget,
    particularly if we continue to invest in education and research and
    technology, it would grow the economy. It would get interest rates down;
    it would grow the economy.
        They gave us a new set of assumptions which now has higher
    unemployment and higher interest rates, even with low inflation. I don't
    know how you can predict inflation goes down and interest rates go up.
    So--and, you know, I realize to a lot of Americans this may sound like
    just haggling or numbers or whatever, but there are people behind these
    numbers.
        In this budget there are Native American children who won't get
    health care. In this budget there are serious, serious erosions in
    environmental protection. There are people--there are human interests
    here. We have to be careful as we do this. We cannot pretend that all
    these numbers are the same and it's just a political deal. This is not
    about politics; this is a very, very serious discussion. We are going to
    make some tough decisions, and we have to do it with a very great level
    of sensitivity about the impact of our decisions on people.
        Q. You've provided us with your problems, some of your problems with
    the new CBO assumptions. Is it possible to protect your priorities and
    come up with a 7-year plan, according to their new forecast?
        The President. Well, it depends on what kind of control mechanisms
    we have. It's conceivable. But I need to talk to them about that. And I
    intend to talk to them about it. I have no--and I'm not playing games
    with you. I just want to have my conversation with them first. I owe
    that to them. I don't want to carry on a war in the press over this. I
    would like it very much if we could just sit down and work through this.

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        But I sure think--it's Christmas week; they ought to open the
    Government again. That's the least we can do for the American people
    that have--you know, this is the only time of the year some people have
    to come here to Washington. And we've got a lot of Federal employees
    that don't need to lose a paycheck this week. They've got Christmas
    shopping to do; they've got things to do. I just think we ought to do
    it.
        Q. Why do they keep saying you're not telling the truth?
        The President. I don't know. You'll have to ask them that. I
    haven't--you know, I've tried to be very careful in this whole debate to
    deal with the specific facts and not to do characterizations like that.
    We have very different views, but if you read this--go back and read the
    resolution we agreed to. We agreed to strive to do our best to reach a
    7-year balanced budget that the CBO would certify as balanced after
    consulting with OMB and with the private sector, that would protect the
    environment, would protect education, would protect agriculture and
    other things, and would invest in a way that really protected Medicare
    and Medicaid. And so we have certain standards to meet.
        This is not easy to do; nobody ever pretended it would be easy to
    do. But I have been working to do it, and often I've felt that I was
    working only with myself. But over the weekend, we worked hard. We tried
    to involve more of the Democrats in the effort. We tried to--Mr. Panetta
    went up to see that bipartisan group of Senators. And I am eager to meet
    and discuss this with Senator Dole and with the Speaker.
        But we ought to open the Government. We owe that to the American
    people. It's Christmas week; we need to open the Government and then
    work this out. We can do it.
        Q. Is the key their cutting their tax cut proposal and your coming
    up with additional savings on Medicare and Medicaid?
        The President. Well, that may be the key from their point of view.
    The key from my point of view is that there's got to be--there has to be
    funds--funds have to go back into the Medicare and Medicaid programs and
    into education and the environment and research and technology.
        You know, I don't want--you can burden--we would burden future
    generations with the debt if we don't balance the budget. But we also
    will burden future generations if we don't protect the environment and
    we don't invest in education, research, and technology. And we just--on
    pure human terms, we cannot have this level of health care cuts.
        So we're going to have to work this out. But I think it can be done,
    but we don't--they should open the Government, and I will work with them
    to get this done.

    Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

        Q. How do you feel about fellow Time magazine man of the year?
        The President. I think he's had a big impact on events. That's the
    standard. That's it.
        Q. Thank you.
        The President. Thank you very much.
        Q. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Where did you get that tie?
        The President. Someone gave it to me. It's one of my Christmas ties.
    You know, I try to wear one every day for the last 12 days before
    Christmas.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:40 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.