[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.