    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [January 10, 1997]
    [Pages 24-26]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Business Leaders and an Exchange With
    Reporters
    January 10, 1997

        The President. Good morning, everybody. We are here in the Cabinet
    Room to meet with business leaders and members of the Cabinet to discuss
    what we all have to do together to provide jobs and training for people
    who will be making the transition from welfare to work as mandated by
    the new welfare reform law.
        But before we talk more about this, I want to report some good
    economic news. The Department of Labor reported this morning--on
    Secretary Reich's last day on the payroll--where is he? [Laughter] He's
    ending with a bang. The report says that 11.2 million new jobs have now
    been created in the past 4 years. This is the first time in the history
    of our economy that over 11 million jobs have been created during one 4-
    year administration. It is a great tribute to the private sector in
    America. It is further evidence that our economy is strong, and finally,
    that our economic strategy to bring down the deficit, expand trade, and
    invest in our people is working.
        I want to thank Secretary Reich for all he has done. I also want to
    acknowledge--there are two other outgoing members of the administration
    that had a great role in this economic recovery, Secretary Kantor, both
    as trade ambassador and as Commerce Secretary, and of course, Mr.
    Panetta, who was OMB Director at the time we adopted our economic plan.
        The meeting we are convening here this morning builds on the
    exceptional efforts that have been made over the last 4 years to allow
    States and local communities the freedom to test their own welfare
    reform strategies. Last year I signed into law an approach that
    revolutionized welfare and made it a national mandate to move people who
    are able-bodied from welfare to work within 2 years. But as I have said
    repeatedly since that time, that was not the end of welfare reform; it
    was only the next step.
        Now we have to launch a national effort in every State and every
    community to make sure that the jobs are there for people who have to
    make the transition from welfare to work. As a first step in that
    effort, every State has to tailor a welfare reform plan that requires
    and rewards work, imposes time limits, increases child care payments,
    and demands personal responsibility. We've already given the green light
    to 26 of our States to carry out the welfare reform plans they have
    designated. Today I am pleased to announce that three more States,
    Louisiana, Maryland, and North Carolina, have been given approval to
    implement their plans.
        The steps we've taken over the last 4 years, working with individual
    States and communities,

    [[Page 25]]

    have helped to reduce the welfare rolls by 2.1 million people. Those
    efforts and the stronger economy have led to the biggest reduction in
    welfare rolls in the history of this country. But welfare reform now
    must go on to the next step, and it cannot succeed by Government action
    alone. There cannot be in our efforts to balance the budget enough money
    to have some big public works program here to put everyone to work who
    is required to move into the work force within 2 years. So welfare
    reform, if it's going to work, will have to have the leadership of the
    private sector in turning welfare checks into paychecks.
        Now, our balanced budget plan has provisions in it to support the
    business community in helping to create a million more jobs. But today
    we are going to meet with these business leaders to talk about what
    specifically they and others can do to help to move people from welfare
    to work and also to talk about what they can do to help make sure that
    the States and the communities in this country have actually designed
    plans that will be attractive to the private sector in helping
    businesses of all sizes, not just larger businesses, to move from
    welfare to work and, I might also add, nonprofit organizations who are
    also eligible to participate in these initiatives. Just a few days ago
    we had our annual prayer breakfast here, and I challenged the religious
    organizations, as employers, to participate in this program.
        So a number of these companies represented around this table have
    already been very active in this. We're going to have a good meeting,
    and I look forward to success. But I do want to make it clear to the
    American people, that welfare reform law did not put anybody to work.
    Unless we can create new jobs in the private sector within the 2-year
    timeline, the welfare reform effort will not succeed. And we're
    depending on the leaders around this table, people like them throughout
    America, to help us to achieve that goal.

    Conspiracy To Manipulate the Media

        Q. Mr. President, do you think there is a right-wing cabal in the
    press against you?
        The President.  No.

    Presidential Immunity From Civil Charges

        Q. Mr. President, are you concerned that the purely legal question
    that goes to the Supreme Court on Monday in your civil case will become
    a pretext for hauling out the whole story again and causing you more
    difficulty?
        The President. I don't have any control over what anyone else does.
    I can only control what I do. It's not going to cause me any difficulty
    because I'm going to do my job here.

    National Economy

        Q. Mr. President, you referred to the jobs figures that came out
    earlier today as good news. As you're aware, not only was the December
    report pretty strong but both the October and November reports were
    revised upwards. Are you concerned at all that this strength may signal
    a building up of inflationary pressures in the economy?
        The President. No. Based on the conversation I had with Chairman
    Greenspan last week, that's one of the things--or I guess earlier this
    week--one of the things that he noted--Secretary Rubin and I were
    there--was that the normal inflation pressures, at least if you go back
    till the end of World War II, that you would see with this kind of job
    growth and by modern standards a low unemployment rate just have not
    materialized. And he speculated on a number of the reasons why that
    might be so.
        But I basically believe, as long as we're competitive, as long as
    our markets are open, as long as we're reaching out to new markets
    around the world, as long as we're seeing American workers continue to
    upgrade their skills and American businesses employ technology and
    better production techniques to improve their productivity, that we can
    keep this going without undue inflation. At least now there's no
    evidence of it. The only place we've had any spike in inflation is in
    energy prices, which was unrelated to the general growth in jobs. So I'm
    very hopeful right now.

    Federal Reserve Board Nominations

        Q. When do you expect to nominate replacements for the two Fed
    Governors who are leaving? Do you have any people in mind?
        The President. I don't know. One of them just materialized. But I'll
    turn my attention to it, and I'll do it in a timely fashion.

    Political Consultant Dick Morris

        Q. Did Dick Morris violate his confidence by writing a book and
    taking credit for everything good that happened to you in the last
    several months?

    [[Page 26]]

        The President. I thought the last sentence of the introduction of
    his book said that he was not responsible for my getting reelected, I
    was. [Laughter] So I would think that you would have to say that was a
    rather selective reading of the book, if that's the way you read it.
    [Laughter]

    Note: The President spoke at 10:15 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White
    House.