[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 7 (Monday, February 21, 1994)]
[Pages 321-323]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Brunch With Senior Citizens and an Exchange With Reporters

February 17, 1994

    The President. I want to welcome all of you here today. You 
represent 60 million Americans, and we need your help to pass health 
care reform.
    One of my key tests for health care reform is: Is it fair, and does 
it protect older Americans? Our proposal does. It preserves and 
strengthens Medicare. It gives new prescription drug coverage and long-
term care cov- 

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erage to senior citizens. And it protects the choice of a doctor.
    Other approaches to health care reform in Congress threaten Medicare 
by taking money away from Medicare to pay for the health care of others. 
Congress comes back next week, and we'll take up the balanced budget 
amendment. It also will take money from Medicare without doing anything 
to strengthen the health care security of senior citizens.
    Make no mistake about it, right now in Congress there are people who 
represent interests who want to use Medicare as a sort of a bank to pay 
for other people's health care, to bring down the deficit, to do other 
things that have nothing to do with the purpose for which Medicare was 
paid in the first place.
    We have demonstrated with our budgets that you can reduce the 
deficit and still be fair to older Americans. We have demonstrated with 
our health care plan that you can take savings from Medicare and 
strengthen Medicare by providing prescription drug benefits, by 
providing long-term care benefits, by doing something to help early 
retirees and guarantee the security of their health care plans.
    I'm here today to say that I don't want Medicare to be used as a 
bank for other people's designs. I do want to strengthen Medicare and 
provide the prescription drugs and long-term care benefits, but it can 
only be done if we fight together for a health care plan that has these 
provisions. Otherwise, if we don't fight, then these provisions will be 
taken out of our plan and, in fact, Medicare will be put at risk, either 
by the balanced budget amendment because of the way it works or by other 
people's health care plans.
    So I need your help. We can do this. We can provide guaranteed 
health insurance for all Americans and include prescription drugs, which 
will save money over the long run and include new options for long-term 
care, which will save money over the long run, but only if you will 
fight. And I hope you will.
    I thank you for being here.

Whitewater Development Corp.

    Q. Mr. President, for the last couple of days, you've been talking 
about how hard the health care fight is going to be. At the same time, 
yesterday the special counsel in the Whitewater case said that his 
investigation he thinks is going to take a year and half. Is that going 
to be distracting for you, and why do you think it's going to take so 
long?
    The President. Because most of it has nothing to do with me. I mean, 
this decision which many called for is going to cost the taxpayers 
millions of dollars, because what they did was to shut down the 
investigation that was ongoing of the S&L issues down there, which I 
have nothing to do with, and submerged it all in there. So it may take a 
good while because they have to go over all that ground. But I have 
really nothing to do with it, and they'll have to do whatever they're 
going to do in whatever time they're going to do it. The reason I 
thought it was a good idea to do the special counsel was so I wouldn't 
have to fool with it anymore, and I'm not spending any time on it.
    Q. We see your lawyer coming in and out of here quite frequently. 
Are you meeting with him about this?
    The President. I talked to him yesterday. But he basically just 
gives us a regular update, oh, every few weeks.

Welfare Reform

    Q. Mr. President, are you contemplating taxing food stamps and the 
poor people to support your welfare plan?
    The President. No.

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, have you prepared the American people 
psychologically for the possibility of military conflict Monday?
    The President. Well, I have done my best to talk about this, and 
we'll continue to talk about it as we get closer. I think the most 
important thing now is that the Serbs and others in Bosnia understand 
that the NATO allies are dead serious about carrying this out but that 
if the Serbs will move their weapons or put them under United Nations 
control, there will be no air strikes, and that we want to do what we 
can to get a permanent long-term peace agreement. That's what we're 
really working for.
    The American people, I think, understand what is at stake here and 
understand our in- 

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terest in not permitting Sarajevo to be shelled and hundreds of 
thousands of people's lives to be destroyed and in working for a 
peaceful agreement.
     I have not committed ground troops to this conflict. I have said 
that we will participate in NATO air strikes, and I think it is the 
right thing to do. But I hope the air strikes will not be necessary, and 
they will not occur if the Serbs will comply.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in the Old Family Dining Room at 
the White House. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.