    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 4, 1999]
    [Pages 1970-1974]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Interview With Neil Cavuto of Fox News in Newark
    November 4, 1999

        Mr. Cavuto. Welcome, Mr. President. It's a real honor to have you.
        The President. Thank you.

    New Markets Initiative

        Mr. Cavuto. This is an interesting initiative because, on the one
    hand, you're compelling companies to do something good, but you also

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    have to get them to respond to that message. How do you do that?
        The President. Well, I find that a lot of them want to do it. I
    think there is a real awareness in America today, that we're going
    through the best economy we've ever had, and yet, for whatever reason,
    there are people and places that are left behind.
        I argue, number one, that it's our obligation to try to help, those
    of us that have done better; and number two, that it actually makes good
    economic sense, because one of the big questions on every business
    person's, every economist's mind, everybody that plays the market is,
    ``Well, how long can this economic expansion go on? How much more growth
    do we have? How many more jobs can we create before either it runs out
    of steam or inflation takes over, and it has to be broken?'' And my
    argument is that the best opportunity we have to continue this expansion
    without inflation is to invest in new markets. And the closest new
    markets are those here at home and the people and places that have been
    left behind.
        Mr. Cavuto. Can you guilt them into doing that, though?
        The President. No, I don't think that it's a matter of guilt. I have
    a positive approach that I think we do have an obligation to do it, but
    I think we'll feel better if we do. But I also believe it is in the
    economic self-interest of those who are doing well now.
        I think there are real opportunities here, and I think that's what
    people like Lew Katz and Ray Chambers think. These guys, they're doing this, dedicating a big
    percentage of their profits to reinvestment in downtown Newark partly
    because they feel a sense of obligation. They think it's the morally
    right thing to do. They think it's important for our country's long-term
    strength and coherence. But they also know there are real opportunities
    here. I mean, we can create a lot of jobs here, create a lot of
    businesses here. I just think it's a real opportunity.
        Now, I'm also attempting to work out a bipartisan agreement with the
    Congress to pass a series of tax credits and loan guarantees which
    would, in effect, give investors the same incentives to invest in the
    poor areas in America we give them to invest in the poor areas in South
    America or Africa or Asia. And I think that will help a lot, too.

    Independent Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan

        Mr. Cavuto. You know, when you mentioned that in your remarks
    earlier today, you almost sounded like Pat Buchanan, because that's his
    pitch.
        The President. But the difference between me and Pat Buchanan is I
    think we ought to invest abroad, too. That is, I'm not an ``America
    only,'' but I don't want to leave behind the people who are hurt in
    America.
        Mr. Cavuto. But isn't his point that we have left behind some of the
    unfortunate in America?
        The President. But he's right about that. He's right about that. But
    I don't think that the way to stop leaving them behind is to put up a
    lot of trade barriers because we've gotten 30 percent of our growth,
    until the Asian financial crisis, came from the expansion of American
    markets abroad. We only have 4 percent of the world's people; we have 22
    percent of the world's wealth. We obviously have got to sell something
    to the other 96 percent of the folks out there.
        So while I don't agree with him that we should put up barriers and,
    in effect, shrink the volume of world trade, I do agree that we have to
    do more to reinvest in our own country, in our own people, and create
    markets here. And if we can't do this now, when the economy is perhaps
    the strongest it's ever been, when will we ever get around to doing it?

    Vice President Gore/Empowerment Zones

        Mr. Cavuto. The Senate could read into that, sir, that, you know,
    here your Vice President is in the fight of his life. There are many,
    for example, in the labor movement who, while ostensibly supporting him,
    fear that this administration, with support of international treaties,
    has somehow abandoned them, rightly or not. And I wonder whether your
    remarks today and these initiatives over the last few months are an
    effort to help Mr. Gore?
        The President. Well, I think they should help him because he's been
    a part of it, but that's not why I proposed them. Keep in mind--look at
    the record. In January of 1993, my first month in office, I proposed the
    empowerment zones to try to get extra incentives in the inner cities and
    the economically distressed areas, even when the whole country was in
    economic trouble. And we set out this empowerment zone

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    enterprise community program under the leadership of Vice President Gore
    way back in '93.
        So this is something that we have done all along. And I have tried
    to--I've increased the number of empowerment zones. Now it's twice as
    many. We fought for funding for them in this budget cycle. Actually,
    what led to this proposal is that I was asking myself two questions. One
    is, how can I get beyond the empowerment zone? They help the areas where
    they are, but we can't put them everywhere; we don't have enough money
    to invest everywhere in the empowerment zones, everywhere there is a
    need.
        And then the second question I was asking myself is, how do we keep
    the economic growth going without inflation? You know, I'm not all that
    surprised that we've been as fortunate as we have been because I
    believed always that if we could get a good economic policy--that is if
    we could get rid of the deficit, get interest rates down, keep expanding
    trade, and make the right kind of long-term investments--that technology
    and open markets would give us higher growth with less inflation than
    most economists had estimated. I made this argument in December of '92
    when we started all this.
        But I have been very frustrated that we have not been able to bring
    jobs and businesses and the general entrepreneurial spirit to some of
    the tougher neighborhoods and more isolated places in the country. So
    that's how we came around to this new markets idea. We were trying to
    figure out a way to keep the economy going and to get opportunity in the
    places where the empowerment zones wouldn't reach.

    Administration's Relations With Corporate America

        Mr. Cavuto.  But you have to compel them to follow, right? I mean,
    you have to provide an inspirational lead for that. And I guess some of
    the companies that I noticed, Mr. President, who are involved with
    this--Aetna, for example--seem to get mixed reads from your
    administration: Yes, participate in these type of programs; at the same
    time, the Government is bashing HMO's.
        There seems to be a disconnect among many in corporate America, I
    guess, with you personally and with the administration generally. Yes,
    it talks the talk and wants help and incentives and that sort of thing,
    but there's almost like an anticorporate environment, whether it's
    investigating Microsoft or looking down at Intel or now going after
    seven utilities and whether they are violating environmental laws--that
    this is an anticorporate White House.
        The President.  Well, first of all, you have to deal with these
    things one at a time. But as a matter of law and practice, the White
    House had nothing to do with the Justice Department----
        Mr. Cavuto.  Absolutely. Absolutely. But you can see the theme----
        The President. ----or the EPA decisions. Although, I would point out
    there are an awful lot of businesses, a huge number who agree with the
    Microsoft action.
        Mr. Cavuto.  Do you think, by the way, that Microsoft is a bully?
        The President.  I think that I should not comment on an antitrust
    action. But I will say this. I've had more businesspeople spontaneously
    say to me they agree with it, than I have say they disagree. So I don't
    think you can view that pro- or anti-business.
        Secondly, if you look at the work we have done from the beginning,
    from the first day I was here, I think this is the most pro-business
    Democratic administration we've had in decades and decades. And I think
    the results show that. If I were antibusiness, I've done a poor job of
    demonstrating it, given the--we've had a record number of new small
    businesses start every year; we've done a lot to reduce the regulatory
    burdens and specific tax burdens on small businesses, to give businesses
    incentives to hire people that were difficult to place, and a whole
    range of things we've done that we've been asked to do.
        Now, on the HMO front, I would also like to say that there were 43
    HMO's that endorsed all the principal elements of the Patients' Bill of
    Rights and asked for Federal legislation because they said they could
    not afford to extend these rights to their patients if their competitors
    didn't have to. So even there, there is some difference of opinion.
        I just simply--I've never wanted to put them out of business.
    Remember in '93--when we had the health care debate in '94, I repeatedly
    said that I thought managed care on balance had been good for America,
    that before the managed care came along, health care costs were
    increasing at 3 times the rate of inflation. And that was unsustainable.

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    Democratic Presidential Candidate Bill Bradley's Health Plan

        Mr. Cavuto. But the irony is now that it's Bill Bradley who's
    trumpeting that initial cause of yours and not your own Vice President.
        The President. Well, if you look at the difference--there's a
    difference in how much their plans cost, but I think the Vice
    President's plan, even thought it's a lot less costly, covers almost as
    many people. What Senator Bradley has proposed is quite different from
    what I've proposed, but it's designed to achieve the same goal. I think
    the American people can evaluate the two plans without my help, and I'm
    sure the candidates would be able to help. But the Vice President's
    plan, even though it's much less expensive, covers I think only 2
    million fewer people than the Bradley plan does.

    Budget Negotiations

        Mr. Cavuto. Could I talk to you a little bit about the budget
    negotiations, sir? Last night I had an opportunity to speak with Senate
    budget chief Pete Domenici, and he knew I
    was speaking to you today, and he had a message that was not so polite.
    But essentially he was saying, ``When you talk to the President, tell
    him to stop grandstanding. There aren't big differences between us. The
    money issues are rather incremental.'' What do you say to that?
        The President. Well, there aren't big spending differences although
    there would be if there are across-the-board spending cutbacks. The main
    difference is--you know, Senator Domenici,
    to be fair to him, has not been guilty of grandstanding, but his party
    has. Let's look at the main difference. The main difference is I sent
    them a budget that was paid for. They didn't want to pay for it. They
    had us spending the Social Security surplus. So instead of owning up to
    it, they ran ads accusing the Democrats of spending the Social Security
    surplus which is just false.
        Mr. Cavuto. They say they're not.
        The President. Well, they say they're not, and they may not be if
    they have a big enough across-the-board cut. But until their across-the-
    board cut they were, number one. Number two, if I could deal with
    Senator Domenici and with the House appropriators, there would be no
    problem.
        Mr. Cavuto. Where's the problem?
        The President. The problem is every time the Republicans make a
    deal, they go off, and they go back to their caucuses, and their
    rightwing says, ``No, you can't do this.'' So they have to come back--
    and they have to come back and say, ``Oh, I'm sorry. We can't do this.''
    So we've had a lot of trouble here. So they say, ``Well, they want me to
    put all our cards on the table.''
        I've made--keep in mind, since this Republican majority has been in
    there, we had one bad year, in '95, when they shut the Government down;
    '96, '97, '98, we reached agreement on budgets where we had their
    priorities and ours, where we compromised, where there were victories on
    all sides, where everybody would walk away and say, ``We've done
    something good for America.'' That's not happening this time because
    this process is being driven for political reasons by their illogical
    extremists.
        Mr. Cavuto. Do you put Senator Trent Lott in that camp, sir?
        The President. That's something you do to try to force me into a
    fight. I had a good fight with Senator Lott and
    Mr. Hastert--had a good talk with them
    yesterday or the day before, and I hope we can work it out. I have a
    good relationship, personal relationship with Senator Lott and with
    Speaker Hastert. But they, in effect, are the prisoners of how their
    caucuses go.
        But I think that this is a strategy that Mr. DeLay and others have embraced and announced, that in the last
    couple days it appeared that Senator McConnell had embraced, for reasons that I don't quite
    understand, except I think it probably has something to do with
    campaigning and how they attract support.
        Look, we made agreements. Look, I've got a record of this. I've made
    principled agreements with the Republicans on welfare reform and on
    budgets in '97--'96, '97, and '98. And the only reason we're having
    trouble now is that the rightwing in the Republican Party is taking over
    the process. And if they'll give it back to the appropriations chairman
    and leaders, the responsible people, we'll make our principled
    compromises, and we'll get out of there.

    Post-Presidential Plans

        Mr. Cavuto. Finally, sir, I'd be remiss; you have 14 months left in
    office, and you've obviously indicated you want an aggressive last 14
    months. You certainly don't want the ``lame duck'' label, and you've
    fought very hard to avoid that. But I am tempted to ask you, since

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    I talk to a lot of CEO's and what they do when they step down, what are
    you going to do when you step down?
        The President. Well, I haven't made a final decision just yet. And
    there are some decisions I can't make, particularly ones that related to
    financial matters I simply can't make until I leave. But what I want to
    do is to build my library and my public policy center and----
        Mr. Cavuto. Would that require you being still an Arkansas resident?
    There is talk that you don't want to be a New York resident until that's
    resolved.
        The President. Well, there's no requirement one way or the other.
    I'll be there a lot, regardless. It will require me to be there often.
        Mr. Cavuto. So do you become a New York resident first, Mr.
    President?
        The President. Well, I don't even know, I haven't thought that
    through. All I'm saying is I'm going to be--I'm going to build my
    library, and I'm going to do a lot of work. I'm going to have it be,
    instead of some mausoleum to the past, the natural sort of continuation
    of the work I did as President. That is, I want to be a useful citizen
    of our country, and I want to have some constructive role around the
    world and help people that would like me to help them in however way I
    can.
        Mr. Cavuto. Sort of like the Carter Center?
        The President. Yes. I'll do different things but sort of like that.
    But it's very important to me not to get in the way of the next
    President, whoever the next President turns out to be. And so I don't
    want to do anything inappropriate. But I would like to have a very
    vigorous public-service-oriented career when I leave here and do
    something useful.
        Mr. Cavuto. What about corporate boards?
        The President. I've given no thought to that.
        Mr. Cavuto. Really?
        The President. No. You know,----
        Mr. Cavuto. Two million dollar speeches?
        The President. I've got to make some money for my family and take
    care of them, and I want to do what I can as quickly as I can to do
    that. But I haven't given a lot of thought to how to do it, because I've
    got to wait until I'm out of office to make a lot of those agreements.
        The main thing I want to do is to have some constructive role in
    public life that is not in any way inconsistent with the fact that
    someone else will be President of the United States and has to do that
    job. But I think there are a lot of useful things I can do, and I'm
    looking forward to it.
        Mr. Cavuto. Mr. President, thank you very much.
        The President. Thanks.

    Note: The interview began at 1:27 p.m. at Malcolm X Shabazz High School.
    In his remarks, the President referred to NBA New Jersey Nets co-owners
    Lewis Katz and Ray Chambers.