[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[October 30, 2000]
[Pages 2490-2497]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With Maria Salinas of Univision
October 30, 2000

Budget Negotiations

    Ms. Salinas. Okay, let's start talking exactly about what's 
happening now on Capitol Hill. Of course, you're in the middle of a very 
bitter battle with Congress on the remaining legislation that you want 
passed, but Republicans are blaming you and accusing you of not wanting 
to negotiate. Are you willing to compromise with them on certain issues?
    The President. Of course, but let's look at the facts here. We 
signed--I have signed all but two of the appropriations bills they have 
passed. There's only two appropriations bills left and one bill dealing 
with taxes and restoring funds to the health care system.
    Now, in every case where we have negotiated in good faith, we have 
reached compromise, and I have signed a bill. I signed a bill the other 
day which had the biggest increase in the history of the country for 
land preservation; another bill which provided almost 80,000 vouchers 
for people to move from welfare to work and have housing vouchers; 
another bill which provided real improvements in veterans' health care 
programs.
    So we've had lots and lots of bills that resolved longstanding 
differences in a principled, compromised way. The only difference is 
that the ones that are outstanding that they're blaming me for, instead 
of negotiating, they basically walked out of the room, left the 
Democrats in the White House there. They came up with their own bill. 
They said, ``This is the best we can do. Take it or leave it.'' Now, 
that's not a negotiation. And that's a matter of fact. No one disputes 
that.
    So I'm prepared to negotiate with them but not to let them run over 
me. That's one of the big things the voters have to think about in this 
election year, is whether they really want the Republican leadership in 
control of Congress and then someone in the White House of the same 
party that allows them to do this sort of thing without any kind of 
restraint, because they would--the leadership is to the right of their 
own constituency.
    We were just talking before the interview started that at 2:30 in 
the morning, this morning, we had reached an agreement on an education 
bill that also involves the Labor Department, that would constitute the 
biggest increase in education in history. We'd double the number of kids 
in after-school programs. We would have a lot more teachers to make 
classes small in the early grades. We put a lot more money into teacher 
quality. We'd do more for repairing schools that are overcrowded or 
crumbling. We would provide more funds to identify and then turn around 
failing schools. It's a hugely important bill.
    And it contains some important compromises between labor and 
business on labor issues, including a bill to protect workers who suffer 
from stress-related injuries on the job--physical stress, I mean. So the 
Republicans shook hands on it, and then they went back to their leaders. 
And they said, ``No, our lobbyists won't like this,'' so they wrecked 
the deal. Now, that's not a failure of bipartisanship; that's a failure 
of leadership on their side.
    Every bill where we've negotiated, we've gotten an agreement. The 
only bills where we're at loggerheads now are this one, where the 
leaders overruled their own negotiators, and the other two, where they 
won't negotiate with us. And there's a lot in there: immigrant fairness, 
minimum wage increase, the new markets legislation to give people 
incentives to invest in the poor areas of America that have been left 
behind. There's a lot of important work still to be done.

Latino and Immigrant Fairness Legislation

    Ms. Salinas. I want to talk about that one bill--the Latino 
immigration, and it's the ``Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act.'' It's 
definitely one of the major barriers in getting the

[[Page 2491]]

budget bill passed. How far are you willing to go to get this 
legislation passed?
    The President. Quite far. We've made some headway. They have 
allowed, for example, the relatives of people who are already in this 
country legally to come to this country after a certain amount of time 
if their naturalization process has not been completed. I think that's 
quite good.
    But so far, the Congress has not been willing to treat immigrants 
from Honduras or Guatemala or El Salvador the same way they treated 
immigrants from Nicaragua and Cuba. And I just don't think there's any 
difference there. I think if you fled a violent political atmosphere in 
your home country, it shouldn't matter what the nature of the regime 
was, as long as it was a regime that violated the rule of law and human 
rights and put people in danger.
    So I feel very strongly that they should all be treated the same. 
And that also affects people from Haiti, people from Liberia, as well as 
the Latinos from Central America. I think it's very important that we 
treat them fairly, and I'll keep working at it until--we'll make as much 
progress as we can. I feel very, very strongly about this. I can't 
imagine why--how the Republicans could justify treating the Cubans and 
the Nicaraguans different from the Hondurans and the Guatemalans and the 
Salvadorans.
    Ms. Salinas. What part of the immigration bill are you willing to 
compromise on if you're faced with a Government shutdown?
    The President. Well, I don't think they'll ever shut the Government 
down again. And I think the real issue is whether we can get this whole 
bill in return for other compromises in this appropriations bill. It's 
called the Commerce/State/Justice appropriations bill. The negotiations 
are complicated. They cover a lot of different factors. And all I can 
tell you is, I'm going to drive the hardest bargain I can on this, 
because I just feel very strongly about it.
    Now, we may or may not be able to get it all, but I am certainly 
prepared to fight very hard. I just don't think you can justify treating 
one group of immigrants that have been here legally--they're working; 
they're paying taxes; they're making a contribution to our country; no 
one questions that they came here legally. How in the world we could 
disrupt families and send some of them home or not legalize their 
position here, when we've done exactly the same thing for people from 
other countries, is just beyond me. I just don't think it can be 
justified.
    Ms. Salinas. Do you support amnesty, in theory?
    The President. Well, that's what--of course, the Republicans are 
saying this is an amnesty bill, but what we're saying is, at least we 
want fairness. We want all groups of immigrants treated fairly. Then we 
can see if there are others who are here that aren't covered by the 
statute. But we had a general amnesty when the immigration act was 
passed before. And I think what's important is--look, I don't have any 
problem with it. I believe we should----
    Ms. Salinas. But there hasn't been amnesty since 1986.
    The President. That was a long time ago. What I think we should do 
is to treat all the people who are--who came here legally and who have 
been here fairly since then--that's what I think we should do. Amnesty 
implies that this is about people who didn't come here legally. We're 
talking about people who came here lawfully, that now are being treated 
differently in terms of whether they can stay. There are people who are 
working, paying taxes; they have children. It's not right. It's just not 
right.
    You cannot justify the position that the majority party in Congress 
is taking on this. At least I don't think you can, and I'm trying to get 
it straightened out.
    Ms. Salinas. What do you think we should do with the 6 million 
undocumented workers that live in the United States?
    The President. Well, we've always had some illegal immigration, and 
I guess we always will. But that's a different subject. I don't know--
there are lots of options there. I think my successor will probably have 
to figure out what to be done about that.
    Ms. Salinas. Any suggestions to them?
    The President. What?
    Ms. Salinas. Any suggestions to your successor? Both Al Gore and Mr. 
Bush say they do not support an amnesty.
    The President. I think it's difficult to justify a general amnesty 
for people who did not come here lawfully, because if you do that, then 
you are really burning the people who have been waiting in line 
patiently to come here legally. And you don't want to discriminate 
against them.

[[Page 2492]]

    On the other hand, I don't think you can justify not allowing legal 
immigrants to stay in this country, when they came here because of 
troubles in their own country, clearly lawfully under the American law, 
and now we're saying, ``Okay, some can stay, but some have to go.'' And 
that's what I think. Let's deal with the biggest and most immediate 
problem first, and that's what it is. We've got to have fairness for 
these immigrants. They're legal. They ought to be able to stay here.

2000 Campaign

    Ms. Salinas. You're going out on the campaign trail in the next 
week. Do you miss campaigning for yourself?
    The President. No. I thought I would, actually. I thought I'd miss 
it more than I have. But this year, I think I've worked harder this year 
than I did when I was running. I've done about, oh, almost 200 events 
for people running for the House of Representatives and the United 
States Senate and then for the Vice President and Senator Lieberman on 
behalf of the Democratic Party, and I've done what I could to help my 
wife in New York. That's been a joy for me.
    So I've enjoyed that. I think there is--you know, I love the 
campaign, and I'm interested in it. But I've had my time, and I've been 
very fortunate, and I've enjoyed it immensely. And I only hope that I 
can be helpful in these closing days of the election, just to clarify 
the choices before the American people. I have absolutely no doubt the 
decisions they'll make if they understand the choices, the differences, 
and the consequences. So if I can help in that regard, I'll be glad to 
do what I can.
    Ms. Salinas. The media is reporting that the Democratic leadership 
has asked you to come out and campaign in key States with key 
constituencies. Do you think they waited too long to ask you?
    The President. No. First of all, I have been out there quite a lot. 
I haven't been out there on these kind of election-style rallies. But I 
don't think that was appropriate. I think that our candidates--this 
election, fundamentally, is about--in a Presidential election, about 
Senator Lieberman and Mr. Cheney and, more importantly, about Vice President Gore and Mr. Bush. That's 
what the election is about.
    What I can do is to try to help clarify the choices, say what I 
believe. Everybody knows who I'm for. That's not the issue. The issue--
--
    Ms. Salinas. Who are you for?
    The President. I've even been wearing my pins every day, as you see.
    Ms. Salinas. Hillary?
    The President. I'm for Hillary, 
Gore, and Lieberman.
    But I think, to go back to your question, it would have been not 
appropriate for me to be out there much before now because of the work I 
have to do here and because of the crisis we've been having in the 
Middle East. But I think in the last week of the campaign, people sort 
of expect, you know, that it's okay for the President to go out and try 
to rally the troops and make the last-minute arguments.
    There are a lot of votes, I think, that could go either way now. And 
all I hope to do for the American people, at least, is to clarify their 
choices, because they have--there are huge differences between these two 
candidates and these two parties. And if people understand those 
differences and make their choices, then that's how democracy is 
supposed to work.
    I mean, the country is in great shape. We're moving in the right 
direction, and this should be a happy election for the American people. 
They should be able to dream about where they want us to go and then 
make a judgment about who is most likely to lead us there.
    Ms. Salinas. The New York Times reported earlier this month that you 
were personally hurt because Vice President Gore has not asked you to go 
out and campaign for him and he has not sought your advice. Is that, in 
fact, true?
    The President. No, it is not true. I don't know where they got the 
story. I've already told them--I told them back in August; Bill 
Daley and I were talking about it the other 
day--that I thought it would not be wise for me to go out too soon, 
except to continue to do what I was doing. I would help them raise 
funds; I would do what I could. But I needed to be doing the job the 
American people hired me to do, and the American people needed to have 
an opportunity to look at the candidates and make their own judgments. I 
said then and I'll say now, I don't think people would object to my 
going out at the end of the campaign to try to make some of the last-
minute arguments and rev up our forces.

[[Page 2493]]

    But that is simply not true, and where we are heavily----
    Ms. Salinas. Well, what part----
    The President. ----we talk to the Gore campaign several times a day. 
So I don't know where the story came from, but it's not accurate.
    Ms. Salinas. But what part of it isn't true, though: the fact that 
you are not hurt, or the fact that the Vice President has asked you to 
go out and campaign for him and has sought your advice?
    The President. Both those things are true. It is also true that I 
agree with them. We both believe that I should not be out before this 
time. And it is not true that we have not been heavily involved in 
talking to them about the campaign. But me, personally, I needed to be 
President. And he needed to establish his 
own identity and to show, as he said at the convention, that he was his 
own man and he was out there running his own campaign.
    And I think that what has been done to date is appropriate. So the 
article was not right about that.
    Ms. Salinas. Mr. President, you know that there has been a lot of 
talk about the so-called Clinton factor. Do you believe that you are an 
asset or a liability to this campaign?
    The President. Neither. But I think that the record--because I think 
it's not about me. I'm not on the ballot. Anybody that is still angry at 
me because of the personal mistakes I made is--the American people are 
fairminded. They don't hold one person responsible for another person's 
mistakes. So that's not an issue.
    I think what is a factor in the campaign is what we did here the 
last 8 years that the Vice President was an 
integral part of. This is a different country than it was 8 years ago. 
And the American people need to remember that.
    Eight years ago we had an economy in trouble, a society that was 
divided, and a political system that was paralyzed. Eight years later 
we've got the longest economic expansion in history; we've turned the 
biggest deficits into the biggest surpluses; we've got 22 million new 
jobs; crime is at a 26-year low; welfare is at a 32-year low. We've got 
a reduction in the number of people without health insurance for the 
first time in a dozen years. We've got cleaner air, cleaner water, safer 
drinking water, more land set aside than any administration in 100 
years, and our schools are getting better. Test scores are up; the 
dropout rate is down; and college-going is at an all-time high.
    And in each of these areas, we had policies that are working. So in 
each of these areas, Al Gore does not seek 
the status quo. He wants to change. But he wants to change to build on 
the progress we've done, to keep the prosperity going. And his opponent 
has very different ideas on economic policy, crime policy, environmental 
policy, education policy, health care policy. And the American people, 
if they know that, can make their own judgment about which one's right. 
But at least there is a test run here. We do have evidence that our way 
works pretty well.
    Ms. Salinas. Given that you have such a solid record, you and Vice 
President Gore, why do you think this race is so close? Shouldn't Al 
Gore be far ahead?
    The President. Well, I think that part of it is, when times are 
good, sometimes people may not pay as much attention in the beginning to 
the differences between the candidates. And I think, you know, Governor 
Bush is a gifted campaigner, and he has made 
his case, and I think that the Republicans have tried with some success 
to blur the issues at critical points.
    But the things that--as President, I've paid a lot of attention to 
the economy. And one of the things that I think is very important here 
is that Al Gore's philosophy about this 
projected surplus is just, first, keep paying down the debt. That keeps 
interest rates down. That's a tax cut for everybody. His plan will keep 
interest rates a percent lower for a decade. That's $390 billion in 
lower home mortgages alone, $30 billion in lower car payments, $15 
billion in lower college loan payments, and more business loans, more 
jobs, a stronger stock market.
    So I think--so he says, ``Pay the debt down first. Then take what 
you've got left and invest it in education, health care, the 
environment, national security, and a tax cut.'' And the opposition 
says, ``Well, we've got this money. Let's give it back to the people.'' 
If the surplus is $2 trillion, they propose to spend, what, about $1.5 
trillion on a tax cut, plus interest, and then $1 trillion to partially 
privatize Social Security, and $.5 trillion--those are big numbers. But 
if you think the surplus is $2 billion and you spend $1.5 billion on 
taxes, $1 billion on privatizing Social Security, and $.5 billion on 
spending, you're in deficit. That means higher interest rates.

[[Page 2494]]

    Now, so the people have to decide: Do I want this big tax cut now 
and this privatization now, and do I think it will be so good that it's 
worth going back into deficits and having higher interest rates?
    I think from my point of view, the arithmetic here is very 
important, and it's really pretty simple. You can forget about all the 
zeros, and you just think that if you drop all the zeros, whatever you 
spend and whatever you cut taxes can't add up to more than two. If it 
does, you're not paying down the debt as you should.
    And the other thing that bothers me is, you see in these 
controversies we're having now, even when we have enough Republicans 
here to have bipartisan support for bills, the leadership is well to the 
right of them. And if you have the President of the same party and these 
leaders in Congress, I don't know who would restrain them when it comes 
to what they would do in so many areas of our national life, and that 
bothers me. If you think about the last 6 years, all the times when 
we've gotten great bipartisan cooperation, but only after I have first 
restrained them from doing what they initially wanted to do--so I'm 
worried about that.

Bipartisanship

    Ms. Salinas. Mr. Bush said that if he was in office, if he was the 
President, we wouldn't have that kind of problem, that he could work 
well with both Democrats and Republicans. Is that realistic?
    The President. It's realistic, but look at the scorecard here. Now, 
when we got--when they won the Congress, they said, ``We don't want to 
work with you. We're going to do it our way.'' And they had the biggest 
education and environmental cuts in history, the biggest Medicare 
premium increases in history, and so I vetoed them. They didn't 
negotiate with us. They just said, ``Take it or leave it,'' and they 
shut the Government down. And the public made it clear they didn't like 
that.
    So look what's happened since then, until right now. We had a 
bipartisan balanced budget agreement, a bipartisan welfare reform bill. 
We now have the biggest surpluses in history. We have the lowest welfare 
rolls in 32 years, cut in half. We had a bipartisan telecommunications 
bill, which has created thousands of businesses and hundreds of 
thousands of jobs. And this year, as I just said, we just had a 
bipartisan bill to increase the spending on land preservation, the 
biggest in history; a bipartisan bill to continue welfare reform; a 
bipartisan bill to relieve the debt of the poorest nations in the world; 
a bipartisan bill to reach out in trade to our friends in the Caribbean 
and in Africa.
    We've had huge bipartisan cooperation. But the pattern is that the 
leadership of the Republican Party, at various points, will say, ``Take 
it or leave it,'' and then we'll say no, and then we'll have a 
bipartisan cooperation. And in the nature of things, the conflict gets 
more coverage than the cooperation.
    But we've had wonderful bipartisan success here when they've been 
willing to work with us. You know, I hope and believe that we still can 
get that done on the remaining business of this legislature.

2000 Campaign

    Ms. Salinas. Let me go back to my question again. If the record is 
so good and the country is so strong, has there been a mistake? Has 
there been something lost in the message for Al Gore? What's his biggest 
mistake in this campaign?
    The President. I don't know that it's--I think first of all, 
he's acquitted himself very well. I think 
the public knows that he knows more, that he's more experienced, that 
he's better qualified. But I think that in the public presentation of 
the other campaign, they've done a very good job in kind of blurring 
some of these differences.
    So I think that what I'd like to see is what I always tell all of 
our Democratic friends, that clarity is our friend, if we can just make 
the differences clear and the consequences clear. For example, you can 
decide, if you believe in our program to put 100,000 police on the 
street and you want to continue it, you have one choice. If you want to 
get rid of it, you have another choice. If you believe in our program to 
put 100,000 teachers in the classrooms for smaller classes in the early 
grades, you can have one choice. If you don't believe it, you can have 
another one. If you believe that we ought to extend the background 
checks of the Brady law to people at gun shows, you have one choice. If 
you don't think they should apply to handguns bought at gun shows, you 
have another one. If you believe that we should keep trying to improve 
the environment, you have one choice. If you believe that we should 
relax some of our clean air standards and get rid

[[Page 2495]]

of the order I issued to protect roadless areas in our national forests, 
you have another one.
    So it's like people can really decide what they want as long as they 
know what the choices are. I always thought it would be a very close 
race, and I always thought that Governor Bush 
was a formidable opponent. They don't disagree on everything, but on the 
really important, big, economic, educational, health care, tax policy 
issues, there are these--Social Security--big, big, differences. And I 
think--you know, I just believe the Vice President is going to win in the end. I've always thought he would 
win.

Hispanic Voters and the 2000 Election

    Ms. Salinas. You know that Republicans, particularly Mr. Bush, have 
been very active in seeking out the minority votes, especially the 
Hispanic vote. And they have made some inroads with Hispanics. Give me 
three reasons why Hispanics should vote for Al Gore.
    The President. First, because he will 
keep the prosperity going and extend it to people and places that have 
been left behind. He will pay down the debt, keep interest rates low, 
and invest much, much more money in education, health care, and the 
environment, as opposed to the other approach, which will take us back 
to deficits and won't leave enough money to invest in our people and our 
future. So the economy is very important.
    Secondly, he will push for things like 
immigrant fairness, an end to racial profiling, the Hispanic Education 
Action Plan that we created together. He ran the empowerment zone 
program, which included Hispanic communities around America, which has 
already helped a lot of economic revitalization. So he's right on the 
economics; he's right on the social issues.
    Third, he believes that it's really 
important that we work hard to build one America and to reach out to the 
rest of the world. He'll be a good partner to Latin America. He'll be a 
good partner to Central America. He will be--he has the experience 
necessary to handle the crises of the world and to be a strong leader.
    I don't have any question that he will 
be a very, very fine President. He makes good decisions, and he's ready 
for the job. And I think, to me, maybe those are arguments I could make 
to all Americans. But if you look at the issues that are really 
important to Hispanics--just take the minimum wage for example. Look at 
the difference in the two candidates on the minimum wage. One supported 
our first increase in the minimum wage and is fighting for the present 
one; the other was opposed to raising the 
minimum wage in Texas, which is only $3.35 an hour. That's just one 
example.
    So I believe--the only thing I would say to Latino Americans is, 
look at the issues; look at the differences. Make up your own mind. But 
the differences are quite vast. You have two perfectly nice people. Both 
of them speak 
Spanish, and I think that's great. I hope I'll be the last non-Spanish-
speaking President.
    Ms. Salinas. Nada?
    The President. Yes, just a little. I speak a little but very little, 
and I hope I'll be the last one. But beyond that, I think we ought to 
say you have two good people; they love their country; they love their families; 
they'll do what they think is right. They really see the world in very 
different ways. And I think if we can clarify that, I think the Vice 
President will win and win by more than people think he will today.

President Vicente Fox of Mexico

    Ms. Salinas. Let's talk about Latin America for a moment. You have 
always been a very strong supporter of Mexico. Now that there is a new 
President--he's an outsider, the same as you were an outsider when you 
came into office. What do you think Mr. Vicente Fox needs to do to be 
successful in a country that was governed by the same party, the PRI, 
for decades?
    The President. Well, first, he's a very 
impressive man. He came up here to see me, and I followed his campaign. 
And I think, just as a person, he's quite an impressive person. He took 
on decades of tradition. He imagined how he could make it come out 
differently, and he did. So--and I identify with him. He lives on a 
ranch, and I came from a rural area, and I think he's a very impressive 
fellow.
    I think what he has to do is to put together 
a good team, establish a reputation for real competence, and then 
develop a certain gift for getting the support of the other two main 
parties or their representatives in the Mexican national legislature 
wherever he can, and maintaining the support of the people. It's not 
going to be easy for him, because he knows he has to make some difficult 
decisions.
    All reforms are always----

[[Page 2496]]

[At this point, a portion of the President's remarks were missing from 
the transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary.]

Colombia

    Ms. Salinas. ----more involved in their fight against the 
guerrillas. People are dying every single day.
    The President. No. I think what we want to do is to increase the 
capacity of the Colombian Government to enforce the law. We want to also 
increase the capacity of the Colombian Government to have a justice 
system that works and to offer the farmers and the poor people in the 
rural areas an alternative lifestyle so they don't have to have that 
drug money to make a decent living. I think that's very important.
    And I think we should support the frontline states, the countries 
that border Colombia, that are also worried that if Colombia succeeds, 
they'll have even more problems. So we have some money in our Plan 
Colombia for the other states as well, states like Bolivia, the poorest 
country in the Andes, which has had, ironically, the greatest success in 
dealing with the drug issue.
    Now, on the guerrilla problem, which is tied to the narcotrafficking 
problem, we still believe that over the long run, there will have to be 
some sort of negotiated peace settlement. And I wish--you know, the 
President, President Pastrana, has gone out 
of his way to try to seek a peace. And I don't think he's gotten an 
appropriate response from the rebels.
    As I said, the money from the narcotrafficking may have something to 
do with that, but in the end, it's not good for Colombia to have as much 
of the land in turmoil and as many people killed every year as possible. 
But I think if they can get a handle on the narcotrafficking, it will 
increase their capacity to negotiate a peace on the political issues.

President's Legacy

    Ms. Salinas. Let's talk a little bit about your legacy, Mr. 
President. What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment and 
your biggest failures?
    The President. I don't know. I think the historians will probably 
have to make a judgment about that. I think that the main thing is, 
we've turned the country around. We gave people a sense of hope and 
possibility. It's not just the economy. But the country is working 
better now. It's not just the economy. The crime rate is down. All the 
indicators--that drug abuse among young people is down. Teen pregnancy 
is down, at historically low levels. As I said, the environment is 
stronger; the school systems are better; and the health care system is 
getting better. So I feel good about that.
    Are there things that I wish I could have done? Sure. I wish we 
could have completed the reform of Social Security. I wish we had found 
a way for all Americans to have health insurance. But because we've got 
a strong economy, because I'm leaving a balanced budget and a surplus, 
the next administration, if Vice President Gore is elected, if people like my wife are elected to the 
Senate, we'll have the ability to extend health care coverage to working 
families, for example.
    So I wish I could have done that, but you never get to do everything 
you want to do, and I've worked about as hard as I could for 8 years.
    Ms. Salinas. Any regrets? Any personal regrets?
    The President. Oh, of course I have some. But if I had to do it all 
over again, I would still want to be President. I would still want to 
have the chance to serve, and it's been a joy and an honor. I've loved 
it. I just--the work--having the chance every day to get up and work as 
hard as you can to fulfill the dreams of the people of this country is a 
great honor, especially to be here at the turn of the century, with the 
explosion of this new economy, with the end of the cold war and a whole 
new different set of affairs in the world, and with American society 
growing ever more diverse. I think it's so exciting.
    This country is more exciting to live in than ever before in human 
history--in our history, in our 224-year history, and one of the most 
interesting societies, I think, in history just because it's so diverse. 
And yet we're still kind of making our democracy work. That's one of the 
reasons that it's so important for new immigrants to get out and vote, 
to prove that they believe in the system, and to reaffirm the fact that 
they have as much influence as anybody else does. On election day, my 
vote counts no more than someone who just registered.

First Family/President's Future Plans

    Ms. Salinas. There's a recent poll that says that you and Mrs. 
Clinton are the most admired

[[Page 2497]]

people in the country. But people want to know, do you feel that you 
have a solid marriage that will be able to outlive everything that 
you've been through?
    The President. Well, I certainly hope so. I told Hillary when we got married--something I've repeated 
several times over the last 25 years, and we just celebrated our 25th 
anniversary--that one of my goals--this literally, when we were in our 
late twenties, one of my goals was to be an old man in my seventies, 
sitting on a park bench with her and seeing young people go by just in 
the beginning of their lives and have no regrets. And I still hope that 
will happen.
    You know, we've got a home in New York now. I'm going to build a 
library in Arkansas, in my home, and I'm looking forward to this next 
chapter in my life. And I'm very proud of my wife, for the campaign she's run for the Senate. I'm very 
proud of our daughter, and I'm glad that 
Chelsea took this time off away from school to be with us in our last 
months in the White House and at her mother's campaign. So it's been a 
happy time for us, and I'm looking forward to the future.
    Ms. Salinas. What will you be doing after you leave the White House, 
and what will you miss most about the White House and being President?
    The President. I don't know what I'm going to do for sure. I'll try 
to be a useful citizen. I'll miss the work most and the daily contact 
with all different kinds of people. But I love the job. So it's the work 
I'll miss the most.

Note: The interview was taped at 5:27 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the 
White House for later broadcast. The transcript was released by the 
Office of the Press Secretary on November 9. In his remarks, the 
President referred to Republican Presidential candidate Gov. George W. 
Bush of Texas and Vice Presidential candidate Dick Cheney; and President 
Andres Pastrana of Colombia. A tape was not available for verification 
of the content of this interview.