    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 22 (Monday, June 7, 1993)]
    [Pages 1014-1016]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Exchange With Reporters in Milwaukee

     June 1, 1993

    President's Priorities

        Q. [Inaudible]--view the whole treatment where you basically--first
    with having to deal day after day with the news accounts that kind of
    talk about the haircuts and the Travel Office and things? No, no, I'm
    asking you how important----
        Q. That's a cheap shot. That's a cheap shot. You are the President
    of the United States. You should----
        Q. Can I do my job, please?
        Q. Get out of here. We don't need those cheap shots. That's a cheap
    shot. Get out of here.
        The President. The answer is, I have to work in Washington, but you
    have to work outside, too. The real issue is not so much what you said,
    but the real issue is, I secured agreement early on for about $250
    billion in tax cuts, spending cuts, I mean, a little under, about $245
    billion. And as a result of that, because they weren't the focus of
    controversy, no one knows we did it.
        And then we got agreement early on for the new incentives, for small
    businesses and for starting new businesses and for investing in our
    depressed areas, reviving the housing market. Because there was no
    controversy, people don't know we did it. So the only controversy has
    been over the taxes. It's important that people know that there are
    budget cuts in here. It's important that people know there are real
    incentives to the private sector in here. It's important that people
    know what we still spend money on. And it's important for people to know
    that over 70 percent of the money is being paid by the top 6 percent of
    income earners. If I don't get out here and do all that work, they won't
    know it. So that's what I'm doing.

    Health Care Reform

        Q. Let me follow, sir. Are you going to recommend a tax on hospitals
    to pay for the health care program on the theory that they're going to
    have a windfall profit from your reform program?
        The President. Well, let me say this, if we do it right, they will
    have significantly lower administrative costs. That is, if we do health
    care right, they will have lower administrative costs. Let me just give
    you one example: The average American doctor in 1980 took home 75
    percent of the income that he or she generated into the clinic. By 1992,
    that figure had dropped to 52 percent, all the rest of it going to
    administrative costs caused by insurance companies and the Government
    just piling on regulations and rules and paperwork and thousands of
    different insurance costs. If we simplify that, their costs will drop
    dramatically.
        So one of the options that has been recommended is that we leave
    some of that money with them but have some of that money flow back in to
    cover the uninsured, which will also help them because that will come
    right back to the doctors and the hospitals in the form of insurance for
    the uninsured. So it would be almost like returning the money to them in
    a different form for services rendered. We'll just have to see whether
    that works out. No final decision has been made on that.
        Q. But you like that idea?
        The President. I have made no decision on it. I don't want to flame
    the story anymore. That is one of the options that has been presented,
    and one of ones that, frankly, some hospital people have talked to us
    about.
        Q. Are you going to hold off the health plan until the fall, Mr.
    President?
        Q. That's all. You talk----
        The President. Hold it off until what?
        Q. Are you going to hold off the plan until the fall to let the
    Congress concentrate----

    [[Page 1015]]

        Q. That's enough.
        The President. Oh, no, no, no. I hope we move this budget through in
    a hurry.

    Budget

        Q. [Inaudible]
        The President. [Inaudible]--I think he's got some really good ideas.
    But once he committed himself to cutting as much as he did, he actually
    lost more Republicans than I lost Democrats.
        Q. It's just the issue of party politics that you talked about. The
    Democrats, I feel, are doing the same thing. So I just think you should
    address that part of it. The Democrats are doing the same thing.
        The President. Well, I didn't let them off the hook.
        Q. I'm just bringing up the point because the people need to know
    that.
        The President. I have nothing to add over and above what's been in
    the paper already. I mean, the Senators on the Senate Finance Committee
    have discussed with me and also with the House Members who voted for
    this program the options that are there within the principles that I
    established. I always said--on February 17th I said if we can meet these
    principles, $500 billion in deficit reduction, aggressive taxation,
    incentives to invest in America, move from welfare to work, lift the
    working poor out of poverty, and these targeted investments in
    technology, jobs, and education which will meet those principles, with
    some less tax and some more spending cuts, I'm for it. And I think
    that's what we're working toward.
        Q. What would you be willing to accept in less taxes----
        The President. I'm not going to get into that.
        Q. How about----
        The President. No, I'm not going to get into it because Congress is
    on recess and our commitment is twofold, of our administration. One is
    to work with the Senators of any party who will work with us and,
    secondly, to make sure the Senate Finance Committee works with all the
    House Members who voted for this budget with our solemn commitment that
    we would all work together in the Senate to keep these principles intact
    and see if these principles can be achieved with less tax and more
    spending cuts. So that's what we're trying to do.
        Q. Good way to sell your plan here?
        The President. Oh, I think so. This was terrific. I loved it.

    Russia

        Q. What's your position on Russia's not paying back your $80 billion
    in debt, loans that are still outstanding?
        The President. They're broke. They can't right now.
        Q. What is your feeling on that? Are you looking for them to repay
    those loans in the next 2 years, or is that part of their plan to
    balance the budget?
        The President. They can't do it right now. They have no money.
    They're absolutely flat broke. What we ought to do--I think the Russians
    have now undertaken--their recent credits, in other words, the things
    that they've gotten since they adopted a free market approach, since
    they got rid of communism, I think they will honor those debts once they
    start making money again. But the history is that countries need a few
    years to basically move from a Communist economy to a free market
    economy. As they do that and they begin to acquire some success, then I
    think they'll be able to pay down their debt. But the dilemma now is if
    we tried to make them pay it off now, we'd just drive them further in
    the economic hole and run the risk of having them revert to a
    dictatorship of some kind. And we don't want to do that.
        So I wouldn't let anybody off the hook that could pay it back, but
    the point is for them, they never really--unlike the Chinese, for
    example, who were traders for centuries and had a whole market history,
    the Russians essentially went from a feudal agricultural economy under
    the Czars to a Communist economy that then became dominated by heavy
    industry. And moving into a modern free market economy is very difficult
    for them.
        Q. So we're going to work with them?
        The President. Yes, I think we should.

    Note: The exchange began at approximately 1 p.m. outside of the
    Milwaukee Exposition Convention Center and Arena. A tape was not
    available for verification of the content of this exchange.

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