[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
[October 8, 1997]
[Pages 1308-1310]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 1308]]


Remarks on Welfare Reform and an Exchange With Reporters
October 8, 1997

    The President. Good morning. I ran for President with a challenge to 
our country to replace the broken welfare system with one that expands 
opportunity, demands responsibility, and reflects our values of faith, 
work, and families.
    Since I took office, we've worked hard to make this vision a 
reality, first by working with 43 States to launch innovative 
experiments in welfare reform, and then by enacting a welfare reform law 
that challenged all our States and all people involved in the system to 
do far more to move from welfare to work.
    Today we received yet another piece of evidence that welfare reform 
is working far better than anyone had predicted it would. We learned 
that welfare rolls have continued their unprecedented decline, dropping 
by another 250,000 people in the most recent month alone, one of the 
largest monthly drops ever. Altogether, we have seen our welfare rolls 
shrink by more than 1.7 million people since I signed the welfare reform 
law and by more than 3.6 million people, or 26 percent, since I took 
office.
    This is a truly historic achievement for America. It shows that we 
can accomplish great things when our policies promote work and reflect 
our values. We're building an America where all families have the chance 
to center their lives around work, family, and responsibility.
    But we have more to do to ensure that all those who can work are 
able to work. The private sector here must do more to take the lead. The 
balanced budget law I signed last August not only repealed unfair cuts 
that targeted legal immigrants but also created a $3 billion welfare-to-
work program and increased incentives for businesses to hire former 
welfare recipients.
    For our part, we've set a goal of hiring 10,000 people off the 
welfare rolls to fill existing jobs in the Federal Government. Later 
today the Vice President, who has led this initiative, will report on 
our progress in doing our part.
    We are working hard here to change lives to empower all Americans to 
seize the new opportunity of a new century. I am very encouraged by 
these welfare numbers. We now have the smallest percentage of our people 
on welfare in about three decades after the biggest drop in the welfare 
rolls in history. This proves that this system can work. But to get to 
the rest of the people, we have to have more help in creating these 
jobs, the businesses have to take advantage of the tax credits, and the 
municipal governments and others have to take advantage of the $3 
billion fund. But this is great news for America today, and I must say I 
am very, very pleased.
    Wolf [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network].

1996 Campaign Finance Inquiry

    Q. Mr. President, Senator Thompson says that it's time for you to 
take personal responsibility for the campaign finance irregularities and 
relieve Janet Reno of her responsibility and simply ask for an 
independent counsel on your own. How do you respond to Senator Thompson 
on that?
    The President. Well, I think that, first of all, I have assumed 
responsibility. We set up a system that has given Senator Thompson 
100,000 pages of documents. And I was surprised that these films had 
been subpoenaed and not turned over. I think there is a logical reason 
for it. I'm frustrated whenever there has not been absolutely full 
compliance, but I think it's in everyone's interest that the films be 
turned over, and I would urge you to watch them if you haven't. I think 
they will reinforce the fact that no one has done anything wrong here. 
So I would just urge--there's been a lot of talk about these films; 
everybody ought to watch them and see what they show. That's what 
they're for.
    The other thing I would say is, again, I'd say that question is a 
legal question, notwithstanding the best efforts of some to turn it into 
a political question. And I don't think there is any lack of evidence 
that the Attorney General, when she thought it was warranted, has asked 
for special counsels.
    Q. Mr. President, what about Senator Thompson's charge that you and 
your administration are just trying to run out the clock since his 
hearing mandate expires at the end of the year and that you've delayed, 
stonewalled, and otherwise put barriers in the way of the investigation?
    The President. He knows better than that. I think he may be 
disappointed in the results of the hearings. He now has more evidence. 
If he wants to have more hearings, he's got

[[Page 1309]]

them. But let Senator Thompson comment on what's in those films. He has 
100,000 pages of documents. They have the evidence. If there is any 
more, we'll do our best to get it to them. They have the films. Let them 
discuss what's on the films.
    Q. Mr. President, do you worry about the credibility of your 
administration in view of these mistakes, and do you think that you have 
hurt the Vice President in all of this campaign fundraising frenzy 
that's resulted in this?
    The President. No. I don't worry about our credibility. You know, 
it's interesting that we have come to this point after all these 
hearings, and they're not talking about any wrongdoing by the President 
or the Vice President as uncovered in the hearings, they're talking 
about why they didn't have access to films which reinforce the fact that 
we didn't do anything wrong. What I hope--the only thing I ever hope in 
this is that we get through the smoke to the facts.
    Now, I have said--and it's interesting that we're discussing this--I 
have said all along and now for nearly 5 years that the campaigns have 
become too costly and require too much time to raise money and require 
too much money to be raised and that, inevitably, will raise some 
questions. And the only answer is to reform the campaign finance system.
    Yesterday there was yet one more attempt to kill any campaign 
finance reform. That is the real story there lurking in the weeds. I 
actually think it's probably pretty good strategy for those who are 
trying to kill campaign finance reform to try to talk about these films 
of events in the White House which were legal and which I want everybody 
to watch.
    I think it's in everybody's interest to get whatever evidence is 
relevant out here. But once we get all the relevant evidence out, we 
need to really look at what's going on here. And what's going on here is 
that under the smokescreen about all these films, which everybody can 
now freely watch, there was yet one more attempt yesterday, which I hope 
won't be successful, to deal the death blow to campaign finance reform. 
And they've done it every year in the Senate; they've done it every year 
with a filibuster. This year, they're prepared to use a filibuster and 
two or three other tactics because they raised more money, more big 
money, and more money from other sources than the Democrats. But both 
parties are going to have problems and questions raised, and raise too 
much money and spend too much time raising it, until we reform the 
campaign finance laws.
    The big story yesterday was, one more time, they're doing their very 
best to kill it, and they're hoping that they can stir up all this 
business, I think, about these films. Now, I'm not defending the fact 
the films should have been turned over. But I think you've been given, I 
think, a pretty good background on what happened. I think there is a 
logical explanation. I don't like it; I'm frustrated when there's not 
complete compliance. But when we gave 100,000 pages of documents to 
Senator Thompson's committee, I think that's pretty good evidence of our 
good faith. We have tried to do no inappropriate things to resist his 
need to discover evidence. We want him to know the facts.
    Yes, go ahead.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, yesterday there was the first meeting in 8 months 
between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat. No statements were 
made. What have you heard about that meeting, and how do you see it in 
light of the latest events in the Middle East?
    The President. The most important thing is that it occurred, and it 
occurred not a moment too soon. We've had some difficult developments in 
the Middle East. I am pleased that Ambassador Ross was able to put it 
together. As I said with President Weizman yesterday, it may be that the 
developments of the last few days have been so troubling and so 
difficult that it has gotten the attention of both sides and clarified 
the necessity for them to get back to talking with each other and to get 
this peace process back on track. I hope--I hope that is what happened. 
That is certainly what I have tried to do, certainly what Ambassador 
Ross is trying to do there. So the fact that they met is encouraging. I 
think it would be better for me at this moment to let them characterize 
the nature and results of the discussions they had.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:10 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House, prior to his departure for Newark, NJ. In his remarks, he 
referred to Ambassador Dennis B. Ross, Special

[[Page 1310]]

Middle East Coordinator; President Ezer Weizman and Prime Minister 
Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel; and Chairman Yasser Arafat of the 
Palestinian Authority.