[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[November 19, 1995]
[Pages 1774-1775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Announcing an Agreement To Reopen the Federal Government and an 
Exchange With Reporters
November 19, 1995

    The President. Good evening. As you know, an agreement has been 
reached to reopen our Government beginning tomorrow. The bill I have 
agreed to sign will allow our Government to once again begin to serve 
the American people while broader discussions about how best to balance 
the budget take place.
    I have made clear from the beginning my principles in this budget 
debate. We must balance the budget, but we must do it in a way that is 
good for our economy and that maintains our values. That means we have 
to do it without devastating cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, in education 
and the environment. And we have to do it without raising taxes on 
working families.
    This agreement reflects my principles. And for the first time, the 
Republican leaders in Congress have acknowledged the importance of those 
principles. As I have said throughout this debate, I could only agree to 
move forward if that occurred.
    Tonight represents the first sign of their willingness to move 
forward without forcing unacceptable cuts in health care, education, and 
the environment on the American people. The Republican budget which was 
passed just yesterday clearly does not come close to meeting that test, 
as I have said repeatedly. Therefore, I will veto that budget.
    As you know, I have expressed strong doubts that the budget can be 
balanced in 7 years if we use the current Republican congressional 
budget assumptions. But I am nevertheless committed to working in the 
coming weeks to see if we can reach common ground on balancing the 
budget. The key is that nothing will be agreed to unless all elements 
are agreed to. I simply cannot sign a budget that devastates Medicare to 
the elderly or Medicaid to senior citizens and disabled people and poor 
children, that robs educational opportunity or educational standards 
from our children in the future, or that hurts our environment. And I 
can't support a tax increase on working families.
    Well, tomorrow the Government will go back to work. And now the 
debate will begin in earnest on how to balance the budget in a way that 
is consistent with the interests and the values of the American people.
    I appreciate the work that was done by both Democrats and 
Republicans tonight. I applaud

[[Page 1775]]

the leadership. I applaud the leaders of the budget committee. I applaud 
all of them for the work that they did. This is the way our Government 
ought to work. We ought to be able to find common ground, and we ought 
to be able to do it and permit the day-to-day work of the United States 
and the American people to go forward.
    So from my point of view this is a very good thing, and a good and 
somewhat unexpected development on this Sunday evening.

Budget Compromise

    Q. Are there any winners or losers in this, Mr. President----
    The President. Yes.
    Q. ----in the sense that you--you may be interpreted as a loser to 
the extent on the binding 7 years?
    The President. But nothing is binding unless everything is binding. 
And if you read the whole agreement, both paragraphs and the way it's 
written, essentially we agree to do something that I said we ought to 
agree to a long time ago. We ought to both say, we'll try to balance the 
budget. There's no magic to the timetable, but if we can do it, you 
know, as quickly--we ought to do it as quickly as we can, consistent 
with economic growth and the values of the American people that hold us 
together.
    So I would say that the real winners tonight are the American 
people. The American people have won in two ways: Number one, the 
Government will go back to work tomorrow, and the good Federal employees 
are real winners, too. And the real winners tonight are the American 
people because now we can have an open, honest, straightforward 
discussion about how best to balance the budget. So the victors tonight 
are the people that sent us all up here and that pay our salaries.
    Q. Mr. President, how optimistic are you you can reach a compromise 
by December 15th?
    The President. I don't know. All I know is that I can go to work. 
But you know what my--you know what my standards are, and you know what 
I'll do if we meet them and what I'll do if we won't. So we'll just go 
to work tomorrow and see if we can do it.

Note: This President spoke at 7:33 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the 
White House.