[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 35 (Monday, September 6, 1993)]
[Pages 1684-1685]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the 1992 Nobel Prize Recipients and an Exchange With 
Reporters

 September 2, 1993

    The President. Ladies and gentlemen, I am here this afternoon to 
honor these winners of the 1992 Nobel Prize. I take great pride in their 
being recognized in their lifelong efforts to contribute to science and 
technology and to better the human condition.
    Dr. Gary Becker received the Nobel Prize in Economic Science for his 
expansion of economic analysis to aspects of human behavior that had not 
before been analyzed with economic principles of our other social 
science disciplines. For example, in the 1950's, Dr. Becker made a 
groundbreaking proposal by concluding that racial and ethnic bias could 
exist only where markets were not fully competitive. Dr. Becker 
currently is a professor at the University of Chicago. He is to my 
immediate left.
    To my right are Dr. Edmond Fisher and Dr. Edwin Krebs. They are 
joint winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine. In the 
1950's they discovered a cellular regulatory mechanism that controls a 
variety of metabolic processes. The Nobel selection committee stated 
that this discovery, and I quote, ``concerns almost all processes impor- 


[[Page 1685]]

tant to life and opened up one of the most active areas of scientific 
research.'' Dr. Fisher and Dr. Krebs are professors at the University of 
Washington in Seattle.
    To my left, Dr. Rudolph Marcus received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry 
for his mathematical analysis of the cause and effect of electronic 
changes among molecules. The Nobel committee said that this work helped 
to explain many complicated chemical reactions, including 
photosynthesis, that are fundamental to life's processes. Dr. Marcus 
currently is a professor at the California Institute of Technology. He 
told me that it took 20 years to actually prove the theories that he 
developed. And I told him that I was beginning to think that being 
President was more and more like being a scientist. [Laughter]
    We are very proud of these Nobel laureates. I salute their successes 
and their contributions, not only as President but clearly on behalf of 
all the American people. And I thank them and their spouses for coming 
to the White House today.
    Thank you very much.
    Do you, any of you, want to give a speech?
    Q. What does it feel like to win a Nobel Prize?
    Dr. Krebs. A big surprise.
    Q. ----better if it could be your economic policies, Mr. President.
    The President. You got me, but at least it's more people-centered.

Health Care Reform

    Q. Might you ask Dr. Becker whether your health care plans are 
economically feasible?
    The President. He probably wants to read it first.
    Dr. Becker. I haven't seen them yet. I'm looking forward to it. But 
clearly we need a great deal of reform in the health care area. So I'm 
looking forward with anticipation to see what they're like.
    Q. Will a sin tax be part of that, sir----
    Q. ----my segue.
    The President. I'm against sin, aren't you? [Laughter]
    Let me say one thing, since you asked Dr. Becker the question. There 
has been an assumption in many of the business articles about the health 
care plan that it was necessary because too many people don't have 
health insurance and in any given 2- or 3-year period about one in five 
or one in four Americans will be without it. But the assumption is that 
it will be a job drain. That assumes that we will pile costs on top of 
what is already the most expensive system in the world by a good long 
ways.
    I believe that this will be a job generator if we implement it 
sensibly and gradually and over time we slow the rate of growth of 
health care costs. Right now we have to compete with other countries 
that are spending under 9 percent of their income on health care and 
covering everyone with outcomes and life expectancy and health that are 
as good or better than ours, and we're over 14 percent. If we don't 
change, we'll be up to 19 percent by the end of the decade without 
covering everybody and with no improvements in the present problem.
    So my judgment is that if we do this right, it will be a job 
creator. So I think you have two things here, we have better health care 
and more security for American families and a better economic 
environment over the long run.
    I've already talked more than I meant to. Maybe I'll win a Nobel 
Prize for that theory. [Laughter]
    Q. Is the assumption about costs on top incorrect, Mr. President?
    The President. I don't know what the assumption is.

Note: The President spoke at 4:11 p.m. in the Blue Room at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.