[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 9 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Pages 412-414]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Following the Health Care Teleconference

March 2, 1994

Health Care Reform

    Q. Mr. President, what do you think of the polls that show that your 
health care--going down the drain--you may not be----
    The President. That's not what they show. One of the polls shows the 
serious concern level going up. How could it be otherwise? Look at the 
millions and millions and millions of dollars that have been spent by 
interest groups to trash the plan, people that don't want to assume any 
responsibility for their employees, people that don't want to assume any 
responsibility for providing basic health care, and people that think 
they can get just a little better deal.
    It's no accident--I will say this: We've tried for 60 years to join 
the ranks of the rest of the world and give everybody good health care 
in this country, and it's no accident that it hasn't happened. It's 
because change is difficult and the people who are doing well in the 
present system devote a lot of money and time to stopping the change.
    But I'm still actually pretty optimistic about this because what 
happened is, every time I get a chance to speak to the American people 
about it, support goes back up, like it did at the State of the Union. 
Then we go through a long period of where nothing is happening in the 
Congress and everybody is kind of maneuvering for position legislatively 
and we're being attacked. And we don't have as much money to spend as 
those who are spending money against us on the ads and all that sort of 
stuff. So these things will happen.
    The thing that encourages me is I talk to more and more Members of 
Congress that seem to have a very practical attitude about this and want 
to find a way to give everybody health security, some system of 
guaranteed insurance on health care without taking away the good things 
that we have now. And that's what we're going to do. And I actually 
feel, based on my conversations with Members of Congress and the impact 
that we still get whenever we go out and talk about this specifically, 
like when we went to Connecticut

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and talked about the medicine, a good feeling about it.
    There is nothing I can do in the short run to overtake the fact that 
I don't have as much money to run television ads as the health insurance 
industry.
    Q. So you are going to get a plan--you think you will get----
    The President. Oh, absolutely. I think that Congress will do this. 
They know it's important. They know it's the responsible thing to do, 
and I believe we'll get a good plan out of the Congress. But it's going 
to be--you know, this is a long and painstaking process. The legislative 
process is just about to begin, and a lot of people get frustrated, and 
they want results now, and they hear all this stuff in the air. So 
you're going to see the polls go up and down, but in the end, it's 
clearly a major concern of the American people, and they want us to do 
something, and they want to provide health security. And I think we'll 
get it done.

Japan-U.S. Trade

    Q. Mr. President, is the reauthorization of Super 301 a warning shot 
to the Japanese?
    The President. First of all, we haven't made a final decision about 
how exactly to proceed on that. But what we are trying to do is to--
since the framework agreement may well not be carried out, we have to 
figure out what our options are to proceed now. But let's wait and see 
what we do on that specifically. I wouldn't--warning shot--I don't want 
to characterize those things. We're trying to move the markets. We're 
trying to open the market to American products, but to the rest of the 
world's products and services as well.

Ames Spy Case

    Q. Mr. President, all these revelations in the Ames spy case seem to 
suggest a much more massive penetration of the U.S. intelligence 
community than earlier had been suggested. How deep did this go? How 
widespread is the investigation? And how concerned are you about ongoing 
covert operations that could endanger the lives of U.S. agents and those 
who work with them?
    The President. Well, I think what I should say now is that we put a 
very high priority on this over the last several months, and we're doing 
our best to get to the bottom of it. And we will proceed to do that. In 
the meantime, we're going to do our best to secure Americans who are 
working to represent their country. But I can't say any more than that 
now. I think that you can be confident that we are doing what we should 
be doing to find out everything we need to know.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Are you somewhat resigned to the fact that it doesn't look like 
you're going to be able to get Mideast peace talks going anytime soon?
    The President. No. Mr. Arafat said that he would join the talks here 
in Washington, but I know he's under a lot of pressure at home, and I 
understand that. The only thing that I would say to the Palestinians who 
are pressuring Arafat not to resume talks is that that is the surest way 
to hand a victory to the madman who killed all the Palestinians in the 
mosque. Why should they do something that would hand a victory to the 
extremists on both sides?
    But he is under pressure. We are working on it. I talked firstly to 
Prime Minister Rabin. We've been in touch with Mr. Arafat. I'm hoping to 
have a conversation with King Hussein today, and I've talked to 
President Mubarak, and we're all working on this hard. But I think that 
they want to come back. And I am not resigned to the fact that it won't 
happen.
    Q. Do the pressures realistically mean you've got to wait a while? I 
mean, you had hoped to resume--or to start the talks this week.
    The President. Well, we'll see. We'll see what the timing is. But I 
think we can get them back on track. I think Prime Minister Rabin's 
speech and the steps he's taken were a good beginning, a really good 
beginning on his part. and we'll just have to see what happens. But 
again I say, if the peace talks don't get back on track, then we are 
rewarding the damage and the death wreaked by the extremists. We don't 
want to do that. We want to keep going. And you know, these ethnic and 
religious difficulties are very deep and profound, but you just have to 
keep

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working at them. And we got some good news yesterday on Bosnia, and we 
just keep working at these things and do our best to try to bring them 
to a successful conclusion.

Hugh Rodham

    Q. Are you supporting Hugh Rodham?
    The President. What? No, what did you say? I couldn't hear you.
    Q. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you supporting Hugh Rodham in his campaign?
    The President. Well, I don't--first, he hasn't filed. And secondly, 
we don't know if he's got any opposition in the Democratic primary. I'll 
be out there in the fall helping all the Democrats. But that's a 
decision for him to make. He's got to make that decision. I can't make 
it.

Herschel Friday

    Q. Did you want to say something about Herschel Friday, your old 
staff member?
    The President. Well, he was a friend of mine, you know, for 30 
years. He did remarkable work in my State. I used to make fun of him for 
flying just back and forth from--to Little Rock. And he lived a very 
full life, was a good man and a great citizen. And Hillary and I talked 
about it this morning and our thoughts and our prayers are with Beth and 
his family.
    Q.  Are you going back there, sir?
    The President. I don't know. I don't know what the facts are yet. I 
just heard about it this morning. I actually--right before I went to 
work early this morning I heard about it.

Note: The exchange began at 11:20 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.