    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [January 14, 2000]
    [Pages 59-63]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Airline Safety and an Exchange With Reporters
    January 14, 2000

    Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit

        The President. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I asked you
    here today so I could make some remarks about airline safety. But in
    view of an item that was in the morning news, I would like to also say a
    few words

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    about the efforts we're making to ensure prescription drug coverage for
    millions of our senior citizens and disabled Americans who rely on
    Medicare.
        Last year I proposed a comprehensive plan to modernize Medicare to
    meet the challenges of the 21st century, to extend the life of the Trust
    Fund and add a much-needed voluntary option for prescription drug
    coverage. And as you know, there's been some considerable resistance up
    until now from both the drug companies and from some in Congress.
        Today's news that the drug companies say they are ready to work with
    us on providing affordable optional drug coverage and making sure older
    people have access to the highest quality medications developed is a
    very good first step. Now, what we need is positive actions from the
    drug company and positive action in Congress, not just on the benefit
    but on the efforts to strengthen and extend the life of the Medicare
    Trust Fund.
        I hope that this is a good beginning of what can be a very good year
    for the American people.

    Airline Safety

        Now let me begin my remarks by welcoming and thanking the people who
    are here with me, beginning with our FAA Administrator, Jane
    Garvey; Deputy Secretary of Transportation
    Mort Downey; American Airlines Chairman
    Don Carty; Delta Airlines CEO Leo
    Mullin; first vice president of the Airline
    Pilots Association International, Captain Dennis Dolan; Allied Pilots Association President Richard LaVoy; and Mark DeAngelis, the
    Aviation Safety Action Program representative for the Transport Workers
    Union.
        Three years ago I asked Vice President Gore to lead a Commission on Aviation Safety and Security,
    looking at how to make our skies as safe as they can possibly be.
    Already, there is less than one fatal crash for every one million
    commercial flights. But we know we can do better still. Any accident,
    any death in the air is still one too many.
        The Commission set a goal of reducing fatal accidents by 80 percent
    over 10 years. Its members agreed that the best way to meet the goal was
    to stop accidents before they happen and identify problems before they
    have terrible consequences. This is a completely different way of
    looking at safety. It requires business, labor, and regulators to work
    together in a completely different way--as partners, not adversaries.
    Everyone must focus on fixing problems, not fixing blame.
        I'm proud to be here with all these people today to announce a new
    partnership among business, labor, and Government to set us ahead of the
    curve on safety. Under aviation safety action programs, pilots will
    report problems or concerns immediately to safety experts at their
    airline and the Federal Aviation Administration. They'll be encouraged
    to share their valuable insights about doing the job more safely. They
    will be freed from the fear of being disciplined for admitting that
    something went wrong.
        The FAA will still have the right to take action against deliberate
    violations of aviation rules, criminal activity, or drug and alcohol
    use. The experts will get the data they need to stay in front on safety,
    to solve problems, evaluate existing safety systems, and propose new
    ones.
        We know these programs will work because American Airlines and its
    pilots have run one as a demonstration for more than 5 years now. Pilots
    reported literally thousands of concerns to the FAA. Those reports
    produced real improvements in procedures and in equipment. They even
    helped designers and builders create safer planes and airports.
        For example, pilots' expertise changed the way some airports use
    lights and signs on the runways, and pilots helped to rewrite the safety
    checklist they must complete while planes taxi from the gate. And when
    American extended its program to mechanics and dispatchers, they
    improved equipment manuals and maintenance procedures.
        I hope we'll be able to follow their example and open this program
    to all the people who make airplanes fly, flight attendants, mechanics,
    dispatchers. For the first time, we have regulators, business, and labor
    working as real partners. When it comes to safety, everyone has a
    responsibility. We want everyone on the team. And let me again say, I
    have only the profoundest gratitude, on behalf of all the American
    people and especially those who will be in airplanes in the future, to
    all those who are here with me today and those whom they represent.
        Thank you very much.

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    Federal Budget

        Q. Mr. President, why are you dropping caps on the budget, which
    were so dear to you in the past?
        The President. Well, first of all, the caps were literally
    completely shredded in the last budget by the majority in Congress. And
    so what I have to do now is to adopt an honest budget based on the
    spending levels that were adopted, in the reasonable expectation that
    inflation at least will be taken care of, particularly in defense. If
    you will remember, we had a big issue about how much the defense budget
    would be increased, but there were other increases, as well.
        So you will see when my budget comes out that it still does
    everything I said we have to do. It invests more in education, science
    and technology, and other important areas. It protects the money
    necessary to take Social Security out beyond the life of the baby boom
    generation, to extend the life of Medicare, and very importantly, will
    still allow us to get out of debt, for the first time since 1835, over
    the next 15 years.
        So all the budget objectives that I have--continuing to run the
    surpluses, getting the country out of debt, but continuing to invest in
    the things we need--will be met by the budget I present to Congress.

    Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit

        Q. Mr. President, on drugs, a pharmaceutical industry spokesman
    today did say that your plan is still unacceptable to them, and if you
    come back with the same plan, they'll still fight you on this. My
    question to you is, are you prepared to compromise with them? And what
    is your understanding--if their big objection is the danger of price
    caps not only on Medicare drugs, but that this could spill over to the
    commercial sector----
        The President. Well, first of all, there's no danger of price caps.
    But what I think they're worried about is the fact that if the
    Government becomes a big buyer, that we'll be able to bargain for lower
    prices at greater volume. I don't think that's a bad thing.
        You know, someone ought to ask them how they can possibly justify
    the fact that American senior citizens are now being carried across the
    border to Canada to buy drugs produced in America by American drug
    companies, with the help of public funds that have paid for research,
    with the availability of tax deductions for research and all of that,
    and Americans are going across the border in Canada and buying the same
    drugs for less than half of what they cost here.
        So I think what they ought to do is come sit down with us and let's
    see if we can agree on a common approach. There may be a way that we can
    agree on an approach. That's why I was somewhat cautious in my remarks
    today.
        I think it's a good thing that they recognize that it would be
    better if Medicare could provide this benefit, because we know 75
    percent of our senior citizens and probably a higher percentage of our
    disabled people who need medications cannot afford what they need. And
    we know it can not only lengthen life and in many cases save lives, but
    it can also improve the quality of life.
        So I think it's a very important issue. And I take their offer in a
    positive way, and I just hope they'll come sit down with us. And we'll
    try to sit down with them and with people in both parties in Congress
    who care about this and see if we can't work out a common position that
    we can pass, because I think it's a very important issue.
        Q. Do you think it's real, not a PR move on their part just to keep
    you from bashing them?
        The President. I don't know. You know, I don't like to bash people.
    I never have done that as an option of first choice. And I'm not bashing
    them today. But I think that their big problem is that ordinary
    Americans now know that if they live close enough to the Canadian
    border, they could cross the border and buy a lot of drugs for half what
    they pay here, and in many other countries, even though the drugs are
    produced here by our companies, and that any large producer will do the
    best--like in the private sector, try to get the best bargain they can.
        But if there's some way to work through this, I'll be glad to sit
    down and make sure our people are available to them, and we'll try to
    work it out.

    Director of National Drug Control Policy

        Q. Mr. President, is it right to offer financial incentives to TV
    networks for incorporating antidrug messages into scripts? And are you
    inclined to try to seek similar incentives for other issues

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    involving TV programming, like, say, gun violence?
        The President. Well, first of all let me say, it is my understanding
    that what General McCaffrey was trying to
    do is to amplify the impact of the advertising program that we have been
    running--and keep in mind, a number of networks have agreed not only to
    take paid ads but have run a lot of our ads for free or reduced rates.
    And they are under an obligation to run public service announcements.
        I think that General McCaffrey
    reached a conclusion, based on how many people see public service
    announcements that are on late at night as opposed to primetime
    programming that more people watch, that if the networks were willing to
    put a good antidrug message in heavily watched programs, particularly by
    the most vulnerable young people, that would be a good thing. And it's
    my understanding that there's nothing mandatory about this, that there
    was no attempt to regulate content or tell people what they had to put
    into it--of course, I wouldn't support that. But I think he's done a
    very good job at increasing the sort of public interest component of
    what young people hear on the media, and I think it's working; we see
    drug use dropping.
        And let me say, I've talked to a lot of people in the entertainment
    community who liked the idea that without compromising the integrity of
    their programs, they might be involved in all kinds of public service
    efforts. So that's where I am on this. This was his initiative, and I hadn't given any thought to the question
    of whether it might be applied in other ways, frankly.
        Q. Do you think it's a deceptive move? It could be used for other
    messages in the future.
        The President. Well, it could be. If the Government were writing the
    content, it could be. And I don't think we should be doing that. I think
    that--however, I think what General McCaffrey tried to do--which was to say, look, if you will do this,
    this can count against your obligation to run public service
    announcements which, as you know, are very often run in off hours and
    times when not many people are watching--I think this guy's intense and
    passionate and committed. And we've got too many kids using drugs,
    still. So I think that's what he was trying to do. I don't think there
    was any attempt to try to undermine the content or the independence or
    the integrity of the networks and the programming.

    Airline Safety

        Q. Mr. President, on aviation safety, the Europeans have been very
    successful not doing what you're announcing today but downloading data
    from airplanes, analyzing hundreds of flights for patterns that could
    cause problems. We don't do that much in this country, because there's
    still a dispute between the airlines and the FAA over what would happen
    if this turned up some violations that could result in prosecutions.
    When are we going to get the kind of safety program they're using
    successfully in Europe to analyze data instead of pilot reports?
        The President. Jane, you want to answer
    that?
        FAA Administrator Jane F. Garvey. Thanks,
    Mr. President. Nice to see you, Matt. Well, first of all, as you know
    we're really looking at the whole issue of FOQA. We do have a policy in
    place which--the policy allows the information to be protected, which we
    think is very, very good. We've got a number of airlines who are working
    with us on that issue.
        I think the real critical question is, when can we see that in an
    actual rule? And we are working that through the administration and
    working very hard to see it in a rulemaking. I think it's absolutely the
    right direction. And certainly the combination of the information we can
    get from the flight data recorders as well as the information we can get
    from the pilots or the mechanics makes a very powerful tool. So I'm glad
    we have the policy in place, and we're moving toward the rulemaking.
        The President. I'd like to make a general comment about this, and
    then we've got to go. I'm obviously not an expert in how airlines work,
    but I know quite a bit about production processes and manufacturing.
    It's something I've spent a lot of time studying over nearly 20 years
    now. It was a big part of the job I used to have when I was a Governor.
    And I can tell you that the kind of teamwork approach that has been
    announced today, in making people feel they won't be punished when they
    say they think there's something wrong or a mistake was made, was, in my
    judgment, the most significant factor leading all kinds of American
    manufacturers to a zero-defect approach, which had a major role in the
    resurgence of the manufacturing sector over the last decade and a major
    role in the comeback of the American economy.
        So I believe that what they're doing here is very important. It is
    not rational to believe that

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    what has worked so well in some other sector of our economy won't work
    just as well here. I think it's a great thing, and I thank them for
    doing it.

    Michael Jordan

        Q. Should Michael Jordan come to Washington?
        The President. You bet. It will be fun. [Laughter] That's a no-
    brainer. [Laughter]
        Thanks.

    Note: The President spoke at 3 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the White
    House. A reporter referred to former NBA Chicago Bull Michael Jordan,
    reported to be accepting a management position with the NBA Washington
    Wizards. Administrator Garvey referred to FOQA, Flight Operations
    Quality Assurance.