[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[January 11, 1996]
[Pages 33-43]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's News Conference
January 11, 1996

    The President. Good afternoon. I want to report to you this 
afternoon and to the American people about the progress we've made 
toward achieving a balanced budget that reflects our values. But first, 
let me tell you about the action we are taking to help the millions of 
people along the East Coast who are stranded and afflicted by the 
Blizzard of 1996.
    I have asked the Director of FEMA, the Secretary of Transportation, 
and the Secretary of Defense to work together and to take all 
appropriate actions. Today I announced that we will provide Federal 
disaster assistance in situations where response is beyond the 
capability of State and local governments. In particular, we will 
provide funds to open up emergency routes in communities once States 
have applied for this assistance and FEMA verifies the need. This will 
allow ambulances, fire trucks, and other emergency workers to do their 
jobs.
    Today I am announcing that this assistance will be provided to 
Maryland and the District of Columbia. FEMA has also received a request 
for assistance from New York, and we are expecting shortly to receive 
requests for assistance from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North 
Carolina, and Delaware. We will act on these requests quickly.
    This has been a trying time for everybody affected. It's often the 
case that in natural disasters you see the best come out in people. As 
we continue to dig out from the Blizzard of '96, I hope Americans in 
their communities will continue to look out for their neighbors, to help 
those in need, and to pull together. We will do what we can here.
    Now I want to discuss the budget. After many weeks of public debate 
and private discussion, historic agreement on a balanced budget is 
within reach if we set aside partisanship and work to seize this moment. 
I'm optimistic that we will balance the budget, and I know we have come 
too far to let this opportunity slip away.
    In the 12 years before I took office, for the first time in 
America's peacetime history, our Government deficit skyrocketed. Our 
administration has already cut the deficit nearly in half. But our need 
to pay off the interest on the debt run up in the last 12 years is 
giving us a deficit. Indeed, but for the interest payments on the debt 
run up in the 12 years before I became President, our budget would be in 
balance today.
    We have already reduced the size of the Federal Government by more 
than 200,000, so that it is smaller than it has been at any time since 
1965. As a percentage of the civilian work force, the Federal Government 
is the smallest it's been since 1933. We cut hundreds of programs. We're 
eliminating 16,000 pages of rules and regulations. But it's time to 
finish the job.
    Let me be clear: We can balance the budget. We can do it in a way 
that invests in our people and reflects our values: opportunity for all, 
doing

[[Page 34]]

our duty for our parents and our children, strengthening our 
communities, our families, and America.
    As all of you know, I have submitted a plan to balance the budget in 
7 years using the conservative estimates of the Congressional Budget 
Office. Let me repeat: With this letter, which I am carrying around with 
me to remind everyone that we have done it, Congress' own economists 
confirm what we have said all along. We can balance the budget without 
excessive cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, without cutting education or 
the environment or raising taxes on our hardest pressed working 
families.
    Now, as all of you know also, the Republicans in Congress are 
insisting on cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment 
that I believe are well beyond what is necessary to balance the budget, 
well beyond what is necessary to secure the solvencies of those 
programs, well beyond what is necessary for the Congressional Budget 
Office to say we have to do to balance the budget.
    We all know, too, that there are two strains at work in the 
Republican effort. There is the genuine desire to balance the budget, 
which I share. But there are those who want to use the balanced budget 
and a huge tax cut crammed within the balanced budget to strip our 
National Government and our country of our ability to do our part here 
in Washington to help people out in our communities with the challenges 
they face. We shouldn't let our fundamental agreement on a balanced 
budget be held hostage to a narrower agenda that seeks to prevent 
America from giving Medicare to senior citizens or quality nursing home 
care or educational opportunity for young people or environmental 
protection to all of us.
    We could quickly find common ground on balancing the budget and 
providing appropriate modest tax relief; we could do this in 15 minutes, 
after the tens of hours we have already spent together. What has held up 
this agreement is the insistence of the Republicans on cuts that I 
believe are excessive in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the 
environment, and insistence on a tax hike on the lowest income of our 
working families. These things are not necessary to balance the budget.
    Having said that, let me say we have come a long way. We have agreed 
on well over $600 billion of savings, far more than necessary to balance 
the budget. This should be a moment for national unity, a time to put 
aside partisanship, to reject ideology, to find common ground for the 
common good. A balanced budget that reflects the best of both parties, 
the best of our values, and will pass on to the next generation a 
stronger America, that is within our grasp. We should get it done now, 
and I believe we will get it done in the near future.
    Terry [Terence Hunt, Associated Press].

The First Lady

    Q. Mr. President, some newly released documents raised questions 
about some statements by Mrs. Clinton on the White House Travel Office 
firings and her role in representing the Madison Guaranty Savings and 
Loan Association. Do you think it would be a good idea for her to 
testify before Congress to clear up these issues?
    The President. Well, she has said that she will do whatever is 
necessary to answer all the appropriate questions, and I think that she 
should do that. And I think that we will determine in the days ahead, 
together, what is necessary. She has begun to answer those questions. 
We'll be doing some more of that before the week is out, and I presume 
we'll be doing quite a lot of it in the days ahead. And as you know, 
there was a hearing, I think, today on part of this matter in the Senate 
and will be another one next week. These questions should be answered.
    Let me say, for 4 years, as these questions have come up, we have 
tried to answer them all; we have tried to be fully cooperative. And we 
will be in this case. And I think she should do what is necessary to 
answer the questions. That's what she said she'll do, and I think that's 
what will happen.
    Q. Is that within the pale, though, testifying? Do you----
    The President. Well, I think--I want to leave it the way I said it 
today. I think whatever is necessary to fully answer the questions she 
will do. That's what she said she would do, and I think we should leave 
it there for now.

Budget Negotiations

    Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International].
    Q. Mr. President, Speaker Gingrich seems to have thrown in the towel 
on the budget, seems to--says something about there won't be a budget, 
not until the next election. And you

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talked to Senator Dole today. Did he agree with that? What's going to 
happen? Is there a meeting on Wednesday? Also, the last proposal you put 
on the table, did that make a lot of new major concessions?
    The President. Well, let me try to answer all those questions. First 
of all, we all pledged, all the parties, that we would not discuss our 
proposals that would require all of us to agree. So I don't believe that 
I should violate the understandings that we had in our meeting to 
discuss the specifics.
    Let me say that we have come very close together, I believe. We have 
come most of the way. The differences in dollars are not as different 
now as some of the differences in policies. We have also made some 
remarkable progress on policies in some areas. We've had some 
interesting discussions, for example, on what we should do for small 
business, arising out of the White House Conference on Small Business. 
We've talked a lot about the serious problems that would befall our 
farmers if farm legislation is not enacted, or at least this farm bill 
extended--should it be allowed to lapse; we can't have that. So we've 
talked about a lot of other things. We've had long, exhaustive 
discussions about welfare reform in an attempt to resolve that in the 
context of these negotiations. So I think the talks have been good, even 
though there are still some thorny difficulties remaining.
    I called Senator Dole today because I just kind of wanted to check 
in with him and get a reality check. I said, ``You know, when we left 
that meeting I asked you and I asked the Democratic leaders to consider 
a proposal that I made because I had not made it to the Democrats 
either. I wanted them, all four, to look at it. We had an agenda of 
things that our staffs were going to work on during this week, and we 
characterized it quite consciously as a recess. And I still feel that we 
can and should reach an agreement. And I just want to make sure you feel 
that way, and if so, we'll keep working together.'' And I got a pretty 
good response.
    Now, I have not had a chance to talk to the Speaker. But I can tell 
you this: When we left, we agreed that they would consider the last 
suggestion I made, all of them. We agreed that there would be certain 
things that we would work on together and with the Governors. We agreed 
that this would be a recess, and we agreed that we would meet on 
Wednesday. So I assume that all that is still the way it was agreed.
    Q. Well, are the American people going to have to tolerate one 
shutdown after another and neglect of all their services?
    The President. Well, as you know, I didn't--I don't approve of any 
of these shutdowns. I think Congress was wrong to do it the first time. 
I think it was wrong to continue. I was pleased when Senator Dole said 
that that policy should be abandoned, and I was pleased when the Speaker 
said that it was morally indefensible to hold the Federal employees 
hostage. So I do not believe it will shut down again. There is no need 
to have a shutdown again.
    I'm telling you, we're not that far apart. If the objective is 
balancing the budget and giving an appropriate tax cut, we are not that 
far apart. And we ought to resolve the policy issues we can resolve, put 
the ones we can't to the side. There will be plenty of things to argue 
about in the election season, but this is something we ought to give the 
American people. And I think we will. I'm quite confident. I think we 
will.
    Mr. Blitzer [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network].

President's Visit to Bosnia

    Q.  Mr. President, could you explain to us why it's so important 
that you go to Bosnia at this moment, when U.S. troops and NATO troops 
are still trying to implement the peace agreement and having all sorts 
of logistical problems, and the security situation, frankly, is not very 
good, as well? Why endanger yourself and the deployment in order to go 
to Bosnia right now?
    The President. Well, first of all, I do not believe that in going 
there I would endanger the deployment. And the judgment about whether I 
am in danger is one that is made by the Secret Service, and they believe 
we can make the trip that we have scheduled. I would not go if the 
commanders were not ready for me to come.
    As you know, I wanted very much to go there over Christmas, on 
Christmas Eve. But our commander there said that it was an inappropriate 
thing to do because of the disruption in the deployment.
    I think it's important that I go see the troops, that I see 
firsthand how this mission that I have

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sent them on is being implemented, that I tell them, personally, that 
they are doing a good job. They are performing a remarkable service in a 
terribly important mission. So I feel quite comfortable about this trip. 
We have worked very hard with our commanders on the ground in Bosnia to 
structure the trip so that its objectives can be met without in any way 
undermining our fundamental mission there. And on the security front, I 
feel quite comfortable with the trip as it has been designed and as we 
will carry it out.
    Yes?

Budget Negotiations

    Q. The offer that you made over the weekend--certified now, as you 
point out, by the Congressional Budget Office--has extracted from the 
Republicans a rather substantial set of concessions, the most 
substantial they've made yet. In light of that, they seem to be 
expecting you to counter that with a similar offer of your own. If you 
did, and you're as close as you say they are, it seems that would almost 
clinch it. Why not go ahead and do that, sir?
    The President. That's my speech. You just made my speech for me. 
[Laughter] I have--first of all, I believe if you look at the spending 
concessions and you start from equal points, whether you start from our 
beginning budget offers or the ones that were made back in December, we 
have both made substantial concessions away from our original point.
    My belief is that we should go for a balanced budget that is scored 
in a way that Congress recognizes because that's what the law requires, 
but that having done that, we should not--we should not--violate the 
other conditions of our previous agreement which is to take any risks 
with Medicare or Medicaid or do things that we know will cause us to 
undermine our investment in education and the environment.
    Now, we can do that and get a tax cut. We still have some 
differences on policies relating to Medicare. We're trying to work out 
our differences over Medicaid. We still have some significant 
differences on environmental policies. But I believe all that can be 
worked out. And so that's why I say I have been somewhat surprised at 
some of the negative tone of the stories coming out since we adjourned 
because I, frankly, felt quite good, and I did make them, as I said, an 
offer that I hoped that they would sleep on and work on.
    Q. Well, is now the time for the President to come forward and say, 
let's split the difference?
    The President. It's not as simple as splitting the difference. It's 
not just--there's more than money at stake here. There are policies at 
stake. And if you split the difference, again, according to the rules of 
the Congressional Budget Office, there must be policies which back up 
whatever number that you pick. So that's why I say that if we know we 
can balance the budget and we know it will work over 7 years, we 
shouldn't go beyond that in any kind of gratuitous cuts in Medicare and 
Medicaid that will require policy changes that either we may have to 
back up on, which will undermine the credibility of the agreement, or 
that could do serious damage to the programs.

The First Lady

    Q. Mr. President, when you campaigned in 1992, you and the First 
Lady both said that the American people would get two for the price of 
one. I wondered if that's still going to be a slogan in 1996, and if the 
First Lady has really taken the role that you envisioned for her as 
First Lady or if she's just simply become too controversial?
    The President. Well, first of all, I think she's done a fine job. I 
may have asked her to do more than anybody should ever have been asked 
to do when I asked her to undertake the health care effort. But there 
are worse things than wanting every American child to have health care 
coverage, just the way every child in every other advanced country in 
the world has.
    I believe that--in the last 6 months or 8 months she wanted to take 
a lot of time off to write her book, which she did do. And I think the 
book is a very important contribution to America which reflects 25 years 
of work, learning, and exposure on her part. And I expect that she will 
continue to be an enormous positive force in this country.
    And in terms of controversy, very often in this town you don't make 
yourself controversial; someone else makes you controversial. So I don't 
think you can do anything about that, especially in the wake of the 
health care issue.
    Q. If I could just follow up, sir, are you saying that her conduct, 
especially involving the Travel Office and the discrepancies in what she 
said about her involvement in Madison Guaranty,

[[Page 37]]

that these things have nothing to do with the controversy?
    The President. Well, let me tell you, you are assuming something 
that has not been proved. No discrepancies have been established. Now, 
we were all concerned, as we have all said, that we kept hearing all 
these reports after we got here that there were problems with the Travel 
Office. It turns out there were problems with the Travel Office, and 
they were serious. An accounting firm said they were serious. Those have 
been corrected. The American people should feel good about that. We also 
said--Mr. McLarty did, who was then the Chief of Staff, undertook his 
own review and said the matter wasn't handled well and detailed why. 
There have been something like seven reviews of the Travel Office.
    So I would dispute your characterization. An allegation is not the 
same thing as a fact. And particularly, I would remind the American 
people, when it comes to the whole Whitewater issue, the allegations 
have often--matter of fact, virtually always borne no relationship to 
the facts. That's really the story of this for the last 4 years. An 
allegation comes up, and we answer it. And then people say, ``Well, 
here's another allegation. Answer this.'' And then, ``Here's another 
allegation. Answer this.'' That is the way we are living here in 
Washington today.
    We're going to do it, and I would ask that--the American people are 
fundamentally fair-minded. And as I would say, I just ask all of you to 
listen to the answers and do what the American people will do, make up 
your own mind.
    Yes, Brian [Brian Williams, NBC News].
    Q. Mr. President, do you worry about the cumulative effect of this 
drumbeat, which is getting louder? As of close of business today, there 
will be more people under subpoena in the Travel Office matter than were 
fired in the Travel Office matter. And second, you must have discussed 
why it is--even if cleared in the end of all charges--why it is your 
wife, the First Lady, appears to be the most--arguably, the most 
controversial First Lady at least in modern politics.
    The President. Since Eleanor Roosevelt, for many of the same 
reasons, from many of the same sources. And that's just part of what 
we're living through. The American people can make up their own mind 
about the facts of it.

President's Financial Obligations

    Q. To kind of stay on this theme of controversy, the end result 
seems to be that it's taken a toll financially on your obligations. And 
there's a magazine report out that's assessed your situation and 
basically decides that you're pretty close to bankruptcy. Could you give 
us a little bit of the financial toll?
    The President. You know, I feel worse--I suppose that probably is 
right. I've never added it all up, but that's probably right. And I 
would like to remind you that today finally, at long last, records that 
everybody knew existed that weren't released apparently had been 
released. Apparently, the Republicans finally agreed to release the 
Resolution Trust Corporation report, which spent another $4 million of 
the taxpayers' money to say what we said all along, that there is no 
basis even for a civil action against us, that we told the truth about 
the land agreement we had, that we'd lost the money that we'd said we'd 
lost, that we had nothing to do with operating the savings and loan, 
that we took no money from it, just like we've said all along.
    So I think that's apparently part of the price of this. I tell you, 
I feel a lot worse about all the innocent people who work here who don't 
make particularly high salaries and don't have the net worth that we 
brought here, who had to hire lawyers and pay legal fees too, who were 
completely innocent of any wrongdoing and who have to deal with that.
    I think it is interesting--let me say, I have no objection to--if 
anybody has a question of me, I'll be glad to keep answering them. But I 
do think it is interesting, when you were talking about getting the 
budget balanced and the controversy over Medicare, that this Congress 
has had over 40 hearings on Whitewater and one hearing on its Medicare 
bill. And if you look at--and I think that's an observation worth 
noting. I don't know what it means exactly.
    Yes.

Budget Negotiations

    Q. Back to the budget for a second. If the Republicans agree to 
reduce their tax cut, would you, in turn, agree to make more cuts in 
Medicare and Medicaid?
    The President. Let me say again, I think it is wrong--first of all, 
I agreed not to discuss the negotiations retrospectively, and I'm having

[[Page 38]]

a hard enough time negotiating in private. I can't do it with you as 
well as them.
    But I want to make two comments. First of all, it is important that 
the budget number have integrity. Therefore, it is important that the 
budget number be supported by policies to achieve that number. And I 
will--I have not offered anything that I did not think there was a 
policy to back up, that would actually save money without hurting our 
efforts to provide Medicare to the seniors or to help poor and disabled 
children or the seniors in nursing homes that get the benefit of the 
Medicaid program.
    So that is basically my parameter. And I'm open to new ideas and new 
suggestions on that. We're trying to encourage more people and more 
States to have the option of managed care because we know that will 
lower inflation in the out-years without undermining the integrity of 
the program or the services available. No one knows exactly how much 
savings that will achieve, so we're trying to find a more reasonable 
thing to do on that.
    Now, as a general proposition, I don't think that I or any 
Democrat--and I believe many Republicans--want to be in the position of 
appearing to have cut Medicare and Medicaid to fund an excessive tax 
cut. On the other hand, we can have some modest, but significant, tax 
relief in this budget bill if we do it right.
    Q. Mr. President, back to the economy again. In assuming that 
perhaps some of the pessimism might be justified, as the markets have 
done in the past couple of days, are you willing, first of all, to 
consider a long-term CR that would keep the Government operating but not 
settle the budget question until, as you say, there is an election about 
it? And two, are you willing to pay the economic price of that 
happening, considering the way the markets reacted over the past couple 
of days on news that there may not be a deal?
    The President. Let me give you two answers to that. First of all, if 
that happens, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, and we'll all 
have to talk about it. But every time we have started to talk about what 
would happen if we didn't reach an agreement in our private meetings and 
how we would move from--we stopped after about 2 minutes, because at 
least in the context of our private conversations, no one has wanted to 
acknowledge that we could not reach an agreement for a plan over 7 years 
because we are close enough to do it and because we know we owe it to 
the United States to do it. So I believe we will reach an agreement.
    Now, let me make a comment that I made the other day in a different 
context that I think perhaps I didn't emphasize enough. You now have two 
parties, not one, committed to reducing this deficit until it is 
eliminated. You have a record here of the Democratic President and our 
Democrats in Congress who alone--alone--passed a budget plan in 1993 
that has reduced our deficit by one-half.
    So I would say to the American people and to the financial markets, 
we're going to get this budget deficit down until the budget is 
balanced. But the best way to do it is to sign an agreement now so 
people can see. It's like the man on the moon--the budget will be 
balanced by ``x'' date. And that's what I think we should do. And I 
still believe that we will.

Tax Cut

    Q. Mr. President, back on the budget, the Republicans propose a tax 
cut; you propose a tax cut. How will a tax cut, a modest tax cut, reduce 
the deficit?
    The President. Well, first of all, the tax cut won't reduce the 
deficit unless it leads to increased growth in the context of a deficit 
reduction plan. If it does lead to increased growth, if it's part of--if 
it's a balanced plan so that the deficit reduction still has 
credibility, then the tax cut can play an important part of that by 
helping to provide some extra income, particularly to hard-pressed 
families with children who have had a more difficult time the last 10 or 
15 years.
    Let me ask you--you could make the same argument about education. 
You could say, well, how can you invest money on education and reduce 
the deficit? You do it because it strengthens the economy over the long 
run.
    So if we target this tax relief particularly to families, to people 
seeking an education, to some of the priorities of the White House 
Conference on Small Business, some of those things that we've all talked 
about that I think we have broad agreement on, it will strengthen 
America, and in so strengthening America, it will make us stronger, 
we'll grow more, and we'll do better. But we have to do it in the 
context of knowing we're going to balance that budget.
    Yes, Peter [Peter Maer, NBC Mutual Radio].

[[Page 39]]

Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

    Q. Mr. President, at the height of one of the earlier phases of the 
budget negotiations you made a comment about the tail wagging the dog in 
the House of Representatives. You didn't mention any names that day. So 
I'd like to ask you, what is your assessment of Mr. Gingrich's 
leadership of his troops during the budget fight and, for that matter, 
for the past year of his speakership overall?
     The President. Well, first of all, you have to look and say that 
they've held together pretty well. And you have to give him credit for 
that. He's held them together pretty well on a course that I have often 
disagreed with, but you must give him credit for that.
    The only time that they had a significant breaking of ranks that 
moved toward the Democrats was on some environmental issues that I--and 
of course, I agreed with those who broke because I think we should have 
a stronger environmental policy in the United States than most of them 
do. But otherwise, they've pretty well stayed together.
    Now, on the Government reopening, there were 17 that were, if you 
will, to Mr. Gingrich's right; they wanted to leave the Government 
closed and continue to play out this strategy, which I think was wrong. 
But I think he did the right thing there, just as I believe Senator Dole 
did in abandoning the strategy first. I think that when Speaker Gingrich 
saw that we had a plan that the Congressional Budget Office had scored, 
that I was continuing to work hard with him to reach an agreement, and 
it was wrong to keep the people out of work or have people working and 
not be paid--you know, you never--I say, ``never''--you often don't get 
100 percent.
    So I think he's still clearly the Speaker and clearly the leader of 
that House group. And I think he has a strong hand there.
    Q. Do you think he should be more cautious about comments that 
affect the market like the comment that he made yesterday?
    The President. Well, you know, this is one of those areas where I 
think we all have to take responsibility for ourselves. I don't think I 
should be characterizing that.
    Yes, Mara [Mara Liasson, National Public Radio].

Whitewater Investigation

    Q. You made a point about being open and cooperative with the 
Special Counsel and the investigating committees, and you've turned over 
tens of thousands of documents. The documents that were recently turned 
over, however, weren't turned over for a very long period of time. I'm 
wondering if you're concerned enough about that delay to look into why 
they weren't turned over, and if you found that any of your staff hadn't 
been cooperative with the committees, what would you recommend to do 
about it?
    The President. Well, first of all, I have no reason to believe that 
anybody on our staff has not been cooperative. And I think that everyone 
who's commented on this from the other side has basically supported 
that.
    Now, on these last two matters, the people who--and let me remind 
you, these documents were not leaked, they were not found by 
investigators. These documents were found by people in the White House 
who turned them over. And the people who are on the committees will have 
every opportunity to ask them what the circumstances were in which they 
were found.
    But we've told everybody that we're in the cooperation business. 
That's what we want to do. We want to get this over with. If I had known 
about these documents at the time they existed, I would have been glad 
to put them in an envelope myself and send them down there, because I 
think to just keep dragging this out is not good and not necessary. So 
I'm--the more the merrier, the quicker the better.
    Q. Mr. President.
    The President. Yes.
    Q. If I could follow up, do you, though, feel you've gotten a 
satisfactory explanation from whatever staff was involved on why they 
were not found, and what was that explanation?
    The President. Well, I have no reason to believe that there was any 
intentional failure to turn them over. I do not know. I want to wait and 
see what happens. They are all going to be given the opportunity to 
explain what the circumstances were. But our rules are clear, and our 
record is clear. I mean, we have literally pushed, I think, over 50,000 
pieces of paper to the committees now and to all the relevant other 
bodies. And we are clearly trying to cooperate.
    Yes, ma'am.

[[Page 40]]

1996 Presidential Election

    Q. Mr. President, the New Hampshire primary is now only about 6 
weeks away. Do you plan to formally announce that you intend to run for 
reelection and name a campaign manager and a campaign chairman? And if 
so, when?
    The President. Well, I think people know what my intentions are, but 
I--in due course I will make those announcements.
    I do believe, and I have said this repeatedly, that I think this 
process going on 4 years is too long. Indeed, when I announced for 
President as a virtual unknown in 1991, I didn't do it until October of 
1991. And I just think that the process is too long. And I have a lot of 
work to do here as President. I'm trying to work with Senator Dole and 
Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Armey and others to get an agreement on the 
balanced budget. I am very concerned about making sure that things are 
going as they should in Bosnia. And I want to do my job as long as I 
can. But there will be plenty of time for politics this year. I imagine 
that everybody will be glad when the next election is done.

Debt Limit

    Q. Mr. President, no budget deal could well mean no increase in the 
Government's borrowing authority. And I'm wondering whether you are 
willing to risk default as one of the costs of having no deal, or 
whether you're willing to invoke some emergency powers to increase that 
authority, even though the Treasury has been concerned that they may not 
have the legal basis to do that?
    The President. Well, the Secretary of the Treasury has done a very 
good job in managing that so far and has not done anything that he has 
not been told he's on solid ground in doing. I think it would be wrong 
and almost inconceivable for the United States to default on its debt. 
It was bad enough to shut the Government down. It was harmful to the 
American people and to the good people who work for the Federal 
Government. That was wrong as part of some sort of strategy. And this 
would be wrong. We have never refused to pay our debts. We are a great 
nation, and I don't believe we'll do that.
    Q. Mr. President, following up on that, with the debt limit so close 
at hand, it's not one of the issues that can be put off until November. 
Secretary Rubin, for example, says in a few weeks we may face another 
crunch. Are you actively negotiating anything on the debt limit that 
could resolve it well ahead of some of the other budget issues that 
might be delayed until November?
    The President. Well, we have had very serious discussions within the 
context of the budget talks. And obviously, if there is a budget 
agreement, everyone assumes it will be resolved. But I believe it will 
be resolved regardless, because it would be wrong not to do it. It would 
be simply wrong.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman

    Q. Mr. President, a question about Alan Greenspan. As you know, his 
term is due to expire in a couple of months. Can you tell us when you 
plan to make a decision about whether you will nominate him for another 
term, what factors you are going to consider, and whether one of those 
factors would be the potential instability in the financial markets if 
you decided to nominate someone else?
    The President. I have to make that decision within a couple of 
months, as you pointed out, and I'm going to follow my standard practice 
and tell you that I will make that decision in an appropriate way and 
announce it at the appropriate time. Obviously, I have done what I could 
to show the American people that we have a responsible Government. We 
are bringing the deficit down. We are looking out for the long-term 
health of the American economy, and we've had, I believe, the 
appropriate relationship with the Federal Reserve. And that's why we're 
still growing the economy without inflation.

Budget Negotiations

    Q. Mr. President, do you see any danger to the economy if there is 
no budget deal this year at all, such as a recession?
    The President. There should not be. We have the lowest combined 
rates of inflation and unemployment in 27 years now. We have worked very 
hard to keep unemployment going down, keep it well down under 6 percent, 
and to keep the inflation low. The underlying fundamentals are good. And 
our economic analysts say that they expect continued growth with no 
inflation in 1996.

[[Page 41]]

    I think it would--let me just say this: I think that if we could get 
a budget agreement, it would be better for the economy, because I think 
it would be a spur for even lower interest rates and to have a longer 
recovery with longer, more stable growth. So I don't know that anything 
bad will happen if we don't get it, but it would be considerably better 
if we did.
    And let me say again, if we decide that what we want to do is to 
balance the budget in 7 years--I have demonstrated with this letter I 
keep showing you that Congress has said that I have a plan to do it; 
they have a plan to do it; we are closer together than we were by far 
when these talks began. We can balance the budget. In order to do that, 
some of the differences between me and the Congress over some of these 
issues will have to be taken out of that budget agreement and deferred 
for the election. But that's what elections are for. We should not make 
the perfect the enemy of the good. Let me say that again: We should not 
make the perfect the enemy of the good. It is a good thing to balance 
the budget. It is a good thing to have the right kind of tax cut.
    If there are other matters that cannot be resolved, we should defer 
them, have an election about them, let the American people make their 
judgments. Meanwhile, all of us, whatever happens in the next election, 
will always be able to say we passed a credible balanced budget plan; we 
passed a reasonable tax cut; we did what was right for America; and we 
didn't undermine our obligations in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and 
the environment.

1996 Election Issues

    Q. Mr. President, as I recall, you once told the Republicans that if 
they wanted to pass these ideological changes, they'd have to have 
someone else behind the Oval Office desk to sign them into law. Is that 
what this boils down to, you putting your Presidency on the line for the 
budgetary items and the Government programs you believe in? And isn't 
that what the Speaker is saying, that these have--isn't he saying that 
these have to be resolved before they'll do any budget, other than 
continuing resolutions?
    The President. But the point I'm trying to make--that is what I 
said. And if you look at the context in which I said it, at the 
proposals they then had on the table, already they have moved on that. 
And I have made a good faith effort to come toward them. But that's what 
you have elections about.
    The way democracies work--and particularly the way ours has worked 
for 200 years--is that people of good faith and honest differences 
attempt to reconcile their differences. And then when they can't, they 
attempt to do what they can and then let the voters resolve their 
differences that they can't resolve at election time. The important 
thing now is that all the American people know that one of the 
differences we do not have to resolve is whether we should pass a 
credible balanced budget plan. That can be done. That can be done in no 
time. We have already--both sides have agreed to well over--well over 
$600 billion in spending reductions. We have agreed to more than enough 
to balance the budget in 7 years and still give a modest tax cut. So 
that is no longer at issue.
    My view is we should do both those things. We should pass the 
balanced budget. We should give a modest tax cut. We should put the 
other differences off for the election. That's what elections are for. 
But that's not an excuse for us to lay down on the job now. The people 
hired us to show up for work every day. I mean, to say, well, we're not 
going to do anything until the people vote in November--this is not a 
parliamentary system. This is the American system, and it requires us 
responsibly to do what we can to set aside our partisan differences when 
we have an agreement and not hold up the good things waiting for what we 
believe are the better things. The better things, we can debate those in 
the election.
    Q. Mr. President, what are the issues you think should be deferred 
to the election? You've mentioned Medicare and Medicaid several times as 
things you just can't tolerate that degree of cut.
    The President. Well, I think the--and the structure of Medicare. You 
know, we can try some experiments, but to fundamentally change the 
structure of Medicare so that it would no longer be a recognizable 
guarantee for our seniors, I think that is going too far in the 
direction of just turning it over to insurance companies and other 
private providers.
    Whether Medicaid should be a block grant instead of a guarantee from 
the Nation to our poor and disabled children and to seniors in nursing 
homes, that's something I think could be deferred to the election. But 
we can make an 80 percent agreement because I am in favor

[[Page 42]]

of letting the States have much more flexibility in the way they run the 
program.
    Or some of the environmental aspects of their plan that I do not 
believe properly belong in that. I don't see why we should cloud this 
budget agreement with controversial items like whether we should drill 
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Those things are not necessary 
to balance the budget.
    Q. Is that to say then, sir, that Medicaid and----

Debt Limit

    Q. What can you say to U.S. investors to allay their fears that a 
debt limit will be increased? And do you feel that the Republicans 
actually understand what they're playing with?
    The President. Well, I hope they do. Normally they say they're more 
pro-business than I am. I dispute that. I think that this administration 
has been very good for American business. But I will say again: It would 
be wrong for the Congress not to extend the debt limit so that we can 
pay our bills. As a country, a great country, we have never done that. 
We have never let the financial markets be in any doubt; we have never 
let the citizens who hold our debt be in any doubt that America is as 
good as its word, and we pay our bills. And I believe in the end that's 
what we'll do.

Earned-Income Tax Credit

    Q. What are your policy--Mr. President, what are your policy 
concerns and parameters around the earned-income tax credit?
    The President. Well, my policies are simple. The earned-income tax 
credit was first enacted, I believe, under a Republican President, Mr. 
Ford. I believe that either President Bush or President Reagan expanded 
it a little bit. President Reagan said it was the best antipoverty 
program in the last 30 years. So this has always had strong bipartisan 
support. When I became President, I asked the Congress to roughly double 
the earned-income tax credit because I wanted to say, ``If you work 40 
hours a week and you have a child in your home, no matter how low your 
wage is, you will not live in poverty. You will not be taxed into 
poverty. The tax system will lift you out of poverty.'' I wanted to do 
that because I thought it was pro-work and pro-family, and because I 
thought it would encourage people to leave welfare and come to work.
    Now, in the last 3 years we've had a decline in the welfare rolls, a 
decline in the food stamp rolls, a decline in the poverty rolls. That 
didn't all happen because of the earned-income tax credit, but it made a 
contribution. They believe there are some abuses in it; so do I. We have 
agreed on savings from abuse. There are disputes. Should single workers 
get a modest earned-income tax credit even though they don't have 
children? Many of them say no. I believe they should because if you're 
out there working, even if you're single, with minimum wage, your 
payroll--or even above minimum wage--your payroll tax will be much 
bigger than your income tax. And those folks are having a hard time 
keeping body and soul together. The vast majority of this money goes to 
people with children.
    There are some other questions there that we could debate, but the 
core principle is the one I want to maintain. I think the United States 
ought to be able to say if you're out there working like you should full 
time and you have a child when you come home from work, you ought not to 
have to raise that child in poverty. That is the principle behind the 
program and the one to which I want to adhere.
    I'll take one more.

Whitewater Related Legal Bills

    Q. Mr. President, another Whitewater related question. Money 
magazine recently reported that you owe some $1.6 million in unpaid 
legal bills----
    The President. That's just what he said.
    Q. ----related mostly to Whitewater investigations. Is it fair that 
taxpayers could end up paying some of those legal bills?
    The President. Well, this is a--as I understand the law, the 
taxpayers won't pay any of the bills, because I'm not a target of the 
investigation, which the American people might find interesting to know. 
As I understand it, the Federal Government doesn't reimburse people's 
legal bills unless--I think one of the Cabinet members in a previous 
administration got some legal bills reimbursed because he was a target 
of an investigation and then was either acquitted or not charged or 
something.
    So I am assuming that I will be responsible in some form or fashion 
for those legal bills. But as I said, I didn't run for this office for 
the money. And I feel badly that 20 years of our hard effort and savings 
may go away. We've

[[Page 43]]

received some help from some people who, as you know, have contributed 
to the legal expense fund.
    But if I stay healthy, I'll be able to pay my bills and earn a 
pretty good living. I'm far more concerned about the legal bills of 
other people that are much--they're smaller legal bills, but for them 
it's a lot of money. So I'm a lot more concerned about them than myself.
    Yes, sir. One more.

Budget Negotiations

    Q. Could you clarify something, sir? Some of your answers today seem 
to suggest that you might agree with Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Dole that it 
might well take another election to resolve this whole budget deal.
    The President. No, I disagree with that. I completely disagree with 
that.
    Q. So you believe then, sir, that this is not going to go on and on 
and on. I mean, can you predict right now that by the State of the Union 
Address----
    The President. Let me just say that if it's up to me, I will do 
everything I can to keep it from going on and on. That is, we know you 
have now two plans that the Congressional Budget Office has certified. 
You just have to take my word for it, because we promised not to discuss 
the negotiations, but we've moved closer together. We are not that far 
apart on the money. As a percentage of the total monies that will be 
spent in the categories at issue, we probably are warring over less than 
2 percent now. But in terms of the policies and the human impact, the 
potential is very great in that money that's left. So there are policy 
differences left.
    Now, what I'm saying to you is we owe it to the American people to 
pass a balanced budget deal and to do it now, because we have both 
identified more than enough savings to do it and to have the tax cut. We 
should agree on everything we possibly can. Then those things we can't 
we should defer to the next election. But when the voters vote in the 
next election they should have no doubt that their budget is going to be 
balanced and that Medicare and Medicaid and education and the 
environment are going to be protected; that the country is going to be 
stronger, that we are moving in the right direction and that here are 
these two very different sets of views about how we can best meet the 
challenges of the future. You decide, make your judgment, and you're 
still in the driver's seat. But meanwhile, we did what we were hired to 
do and what we said we would do, which is to balance the budget.
    We have to adjourn, but let me just say this before I quit--where's 
Charlie Tasnadi? Where are you? Where are you? This is his--after 32 
years working for AP, this is his very last Presidential press 
conference. Thanks for doing a great job. Let's give him a big hand. 
[Applause] I'm not sure you're old enough to retire, but there are some 
days when I can understand why you decided to. [Laughter]
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President's 113th news conference began at 4 p.m. in the East 
Room at the White House. A portion of this news conference could not be 
verified because the tape was incomplete.