    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [February 13, 1998]
    [Pages 219-221]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Swearing-In Ceremony for David Satcher as Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health
    and an Exchange With Reporters
    February 13, 1998

        The President. Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President; Secretary Shalala,
    thank you for your heroic efforts in this regard. To the Satcher family,
    Senator Kennedy, Senator
    Jeffords, Senator Frist, Congressman Stokes, Congressman
    Waters, to the members of the Satcher family
    and friends, and all the people who've worked so hard for this
    nomination, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the
    American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical
    Colleges, the National Medical Association. Dr. Sullivan, it's nice to see you back here.
        This is a good day for America. It should be a happy day for
    America, and it bodes well for the health of the American people and
    especially of the American children.
        I am very, very grateful to the bipartisan majority of the United
    States Senate who made it possible for us to swear in David Satcher as
    the next Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary of Health. Besides
    being superbly qualified, I can't help noting, he also looks good in his
    uniform. [Laughter]
        Only once before has the President had the honor and the opportunity
    to appoint one person to fill two of the most demanding public health
    positions in the Nation. Dr. Satcher is more than capable of meeting
    this challenge. From the overwhelming bipartisan support he received,
    and the strong support he received from professional organizations, it
    is clear that we have found the right advocate for America's public
    health.
        He takes on his role at a pivotal time in American health care.
    Stunning medical breakthroughs, new treatments for some of our most
    deadly diseases, a rapidly changing health care system make it more
    important than ever that our Surgeon General truly be America's family
    doctor and guide us through this time of change.
        As Surgeon General, Dr. Satcher will give us plain talk and sound
    advice about what each of us can do to live healthier lives. He'll guide
    our Nation on the most important public health issues of our time, from
    increasing public awareness on how to prevent some of our most
    devastating diseases, to helping free our children from the deadly grip
    of tobacco. Later today in Philadelphia, I will be talking to some of
    America's premiere scientists about what we as a nation can do to
    protect our young people from tobacco. And I know that Dr. Satcher will
    continue to lead our efforts.
        This is a time of great opportunity and great challenge. We are also
    going to try this year to pass in the Congress a 21st century research
    fund to make unprecedented efforts to find cures for diseases from
    diabetes to Alzheimer's to AIDS. We are going to do our best to deal
    with the challenge of cloning by securing legislation that would ban the
    cloning of human beings but permit necessary medical research to go
    forward. We are going to try to pass a health care consumer bill of
    rights, increasingly important with over 160 million Americans in
    managed care plans. We are going to try to expand coverage--and the law
    is already enacted--to 5 million more children and to increase
    opportunities for people between the ages of 55 and 65 to have health
    care coverage.
        All those things are important, but in the end, the decisions the
    American people make day-in and day-out about their own health care,
    collectively, will have a bigger impact, certainly in the near and
    medium term on the welfare of their families, the health they enjoy, and
    therefore, the strength of our country. David Satcher is taking a very
    important job, and I am very, very glad that he is doing it.
        When I nominated him, Dr. Satcher told me how proud his mother would
    have been that

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    a boy whose parents never had the chance to finish elementary school,
    and who nearly died from whooping cough, could grow up to become Surgeon
    General. Well today, Dr. Satcher, we here, and indeed, all Americans,
    share that pride.
        Under your leadership, an old-fashioned, genuine, honest-to-
    goodness, all-American dream story will go forward to lead America into
    the 21st century stronger and healthier than ever.
        Now I'd like to ask the Vice President
    to swear Dr. Satcher in.

    [At this point, Vice President Gore administered the oath of office, and
    Dr. Satcher made brief remarks.]

    Situation in Iraq

        Q. Mr. President, the Russian Defense Minister very publicly,
    yesterday, ripped the--[inaudible]--Secretary Cohen. How big an obstacle
    to the policy that you're pursuing, which might have to use military
    force, is this?
        The President. Let me say, first of all, to the members of the
    Satcher family who aren't from Washington, when all the people from
    Washington started smiling when Sam [Sam
    Donaldson, ABC News] asked the question, you should understand that
    proves that this is a truly important event. [Laughter]
        Q. Flattery will get you everywhere. [Laughter]
        The President. I'm just trying to do it an inch at a time.
    [Laughter]
        Let me say that's a very important question because of the reports
    of the meeting. I have talked at some length with President
    Yeltsin about this matter. This is a difficult
    thing for the Russians because they have long had--going back decades--a
    relationship with the nation of Iraq that long predates Saddam
    Hussein.
        The Russians agree with us that they are not in compliance with the
    United Nations resolutions. They agree with us that they must let the
    inspectors go back to work, do their job, open the sites. They want a
    diplomatic solution; I want a diplomatic solution. I have bent over
    backwards for months now to try to achieve a diplomatic solution. I am
    still working with the Russians, the French, the United Nations,
    anybody, to try to find a diplomatic solution.
        The difference here is that I simply do not believe it is acceptable
    to permit Iraq to walk away from its obligations, because what we want
    to do is to significantly diminish the capacity of the Iraqis to
    reconstitute, to develop, to deploy their weapons of mass destruction,
    and to threaten their neighbors. That is the difference. We don't
    believe it is acceptable, if diplomacy fails, to walk away.
        And our relationship with Russia is very important to us. My
    relationship with President Yeltsin has been
    very productive, and I believe we have advanced the cause of world peace
    in substantial ways and advanced our future partnership. But I don't
    think you can have a United Nations set of resolutions about something
    this important to the future of the world and simply walk away if
    diplomacy fails. And so, that's the rub. But we're going to keep working
    with the Russians and with everybody else. We're trying to find a
    diplomatic solution. And I hope that whatever happens, that our
    relationships with Russia will continue to be productive and
    constructive and strong because that's very important to the future of
    our people.
        Q. When push comes to shove, are you going to be able to go
    forward--if Russia says nyet?
        The President. I don't believe--nyet is not ``no'' for the United
    States under these circumstances.
        Q. Sir, if nyet is not ``no,'' how close are we to having troops in
    harm's way in Iraq?
        The President. Well, what--we are simply doing what we always do
    under circumstances like this. We're taking the necessary steps that you
    would expect the United States to take. But I will say again, if there
    is military action over this matter in Iraq, it will be Saddam Hussein's
    decision,  not mine. It's up to him to make
    that decision. And I hope and I pray that he will permit qualified,
    honest, nonpolitical, technically competent inspectors to have access to
    those sites which have been forbidden and then to permit the monitoring
    system to go.
        Just look at the volume--look at the sheer volume of stocks and
    weapons in the chemical and biological area. Look at the nuclear work
    that's been done since the end of the Gulf war. The inspection system
    works. It has made the world safer. If he would let that inspection
    system be completed and accept the offer of the international community,
    which the United States strongly supports, to sell more oil and have
    more funds for food and medicine and for reconstituting the basic,
    fundamental necessities of human life in this country, we would be well
    on the way to resolving this.

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        This is not a complicated thing. A country like Iraq can be a great
    country and succeed without having a chemical and biological weapons
    program and the means to visit those weapons on their neighbors. And
    this is a decision for him to make. I think it is a no-brainer in terms
    of what's right for the people, the children, and the future of Iraq.
    But the rest of us have to worry about the children and the people and
    the future of all the people that are around Iraq or might someday find
    their way in harm's way if those weapons of chemical and biological
    destruction are more widely disseminated.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to former Secretary of Health and
    Human Services Louis W. Sullivan; and President Boris Yeltsin of Russia.
    A reporter referred to Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev of Russia.