    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 11 (Monday, March 22, 1993)]
    [Pages 436-437]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Exchange With Reporters Prior to a Meeting With Congressional Leaders

     March 16, 1993

        Q. Mr. President, do you think you can really afford to cut the
    defense budget with

    [[Page 437]]

    what's happening in Russia? Cut it as much as you want to?

        The President. Well, I think we're going to have hearings about it.
    We're going to have to see. We'll have to cut it some. We can't meet the
    deficit reduction targets if we don't.

        What's happening in Russia may or may not present an additional
    threat to our security, but what we hope we can do is to keep democracy
    and economic reform going. And I think there's an almost unanimous
    feeling in the Congress that we ought to do that. We're bipartisan, and
    that's one of the issues I want to discuss here today.
        Q. Senator Dole said last night that instead of choosing Al Gore to
    reinvent Government, you should have chosen Ross Perot. What do you
    think of that?
        The Vice President. I can't believe he'd say that. [Laughter]
        The President. If I said what I thought, it would be a story. I
    don't want to do that. [Laughter]

    Note: The exchange began at 9:47 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White
    House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this
    exchange.