[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 5 (Monday, February 7, 1994)]
[Pages 190-191]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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

February 2, 1994

Bipartisan Cooperation

    The President. Let me say just a word here. I can't speak very loud. 
This is our first but what will be the first of several bipartisan 
leadership meetings, and I'm looking forward to a productive year. We 
had a good year working together in 1993. We did a lot of things, and 
even though we have some differences to resolve, I'm convinced that we 
can resolve them and work together on crime and welfare reform and 
health care. And I'm looking forward to it.

Vietnam

    Q. Mr. President, there seems to be a bipartisan majority, at least 
in the Senate, urging you to finally lift the trade embargo against 
Vietnam. Is this the moment that you're ready to move forward on that?
    The President. Well, I've not made a final decision, but we are 
reviewing it and will be reviewing it over the next couple of days.
    Q. ----this week--have a decision this week?
    The President. Well, I'll have a decision, I'd say, within the next 
several days.
    Q. Is that decision harder, sir, because of your college-age protest 
against the war? Is it politically more tough?
    The President. Not really. I mean, I think the fact that there are 
so many distinguished veterans who think that the embargo should be 
lifted and there are people on the other side who voted who were not 
veterans; this is an issue for the present day, and we just have to do 
what's right today.
    Q. Is there any connection at all to the apparent exoneration of 
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown by the Justice Department and the grand 
jury, to this decision that could happen on Vietnam?
    The President. No.

Business Roundtable

    Q. The Business Roundtable today is supposed to support Cooper's 
bill. How will that affect you?
    The President. They're trying to decide what their negotiating 
position would be.

[[Page 191]]

They told me yesterday, the representatives, that they had no thought 
that it would pass. They're trying to decide what their best negotiating 
position is. I made an argument that their best negotiating position 
ought to be to say what they thought was wrong with our bill, because 
almost all of them--not all of them, but almost all of them--favor 
guaranteed private insurance for everyone to stop the cost shifting to 
them. Most big businesses have paid higher premiums than they should 
have because of the cost shifting. And since they all cover their 
employees, most of them favor some form of universal coverage.
    And so I argued that if that was really their position, their best 
policy ought to be to give a laundry list of everything they thought was 
wrong with our bill and that that was an appropriate thing, but they'll 
have to make their own decision about what they want to do.
    Q. Can you convince them?
    The President. I don't have any idea. I only talked to a handful of 
them, so I didn't have a shot at most of them.

President's Health

    Q. How are you feeling?
    The President. Good. It's getting better.
    Q. Are you going to do mostly listening or talking?
    The President. What do you think? I never learned anything talking 
in my life. [Laughter]

Note: The President spoke at 10:13 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
exchange.