    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 25 (Monday, June 27, 1994)]
    [Pages 1339-1344]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Interview With Kevin Horrigan and Charles Brennan of KMOX Radio in St.
    Louis, Missouri

    June 24, 1994

        Representative Richard Gephardt. Hi, Kevin and Charles. We want to
    welcome the President of the United States today. We're on Air Force
    One, and we're going to be in St. Louis in a few minutes. And we welcome
    the President to our great city.
        Q. And we welcome you, Mr. Clinton, to the voice of St. Louis, KMOX
    Radio.
        The President. Thank you. It's good to be on KMOX, and it's good to
    be coming back to St. Louis.

    Campaign Finance Reform

    [At this point, an interviewer asked the President to justify raising
    $40 million in campaign funds after having campaigned during the
    Presidential election to reform campaign financing.]

        The President. I justify it because of the opposition policies of
    the Republican Party and all the special interest groups that have
    raised and spent far more money against us, attacking me and my policies
    and spreading disinformation to the American people. Let me say that all
    this time, ever since I've been in office, I have worked hard to pass a
    campaign finance reform bill, which would limit these kinds of
    contributions right across the board to both political parties and
    restore basically unfettered debate to the central position it ought to
    have in our political system.
        But I don't believe in unilateral disarmament. The money that I have
    raised will be used to try to make sure that the Democratic parties
    throughout the country in these fall elections and our candidates will
    at least have a fighting chance to talk about our record and the facts
    and what we've done here. If we could change the rules for everybody,
    that's what we ought to do.
        When I ran for President, I didn't even take any PAC money. And I
    have worked very, very hard to pass campaign finance reform laws and
    lobby reform laws which will make the system better. But until I do, it
    would be a mistake for the Democrats to just lay down and not raise any
    money, letting the Republicans and a lot of their allied groups have all
    the money in the world when they already have greater access to a lot of
    things like a lot of other media outlets than we do.
        Q. Wouldn't you be setting a leadership example, though, if you were
    the first one to say, ``Look, these $15,000-a-table fundraisers
    basically are way out of hand. I've got to put an end to this''?
        The President. Well, I'm trying to put an end to it. All the
    Congress has to do is to

    [[Page 1340]]

    send me the campaign finance reform bill, and we'll put an end to this
    so-called soft money. I've been working for a year and a half to do it.
    But we have enough problems. The Republicans and the far right in this
    country have their own media networks. We don't have anything like that.
    They have extra organized political action groups that we can't match.
    And they have the Republican Party's fundraising apparatus, which has
    been strengthened by having had the White House for all but 4 years in
    the last 20 years.
        So we have real problems competing. I am more than happy to stop
    this. I've been out there fighting to stop it. All they have to do is to
    send me the campaign finance reform bill, and it'll be done.

    [Representative Gephardt lauded the administration's efforts to advance
    campaign finance reform and indicated that both the campaign finance
    reform bill and the bill to limit lobbyist activities would be on the
    President's desk in 3 or 4 weeks.]

        The President. I'd like to emphasize that the things that are within
    my control, requirements and limits on my administration and what can be
    done with regard to lobbying, are stricter now than they have ever been
    in American history because of the things that I've done, that I can do
    on my own. And I want this campaign finance law to change. But we ought
    to change it by the law, and we ought to change it for everyone.

    Media Criticism

    [An interviewer asked the President if people were becoming more
    cynical, less tolerant.]

        The President. Absolutely. I think there's too much cynicism and too
    much intolerance. But if you look at the information they get, if you
    look at how much more negative the news reports are, how much more
    editorial they are, and how much less direct they are, if you look at
    how much of talk radio is just a constant unremitting drumbeat of
    negativism and cynicism, you can't--I don't think the American people
    are cynical, but you can't blame them for responding that way.
        We, for example, we had a meeting the other day, and a group of
    people were told that under our budgets we were going to bring the
    deficit down 3 years in a row for the first time since Harry Truman was
    President. And some of them said, ``Well, I just don't believe you. We
    never hear that on the news. I just don't believe you.'' It's a fact.
    I've worked hard to do it. And we're going to--we're bringing the
    deficit down. That's what bothers me.
        You know, I just got back from Normandy, celebrating the 50th
    anniversary of D-Day. And when I stood on Normandy beaches and when I
    saw all those rows of crosses there, it occurred to me that those people
    did not die so the American people could indulge themselves in the
    luxury of cynicism. And frankly, that's just what it is. America now
    has--we have the strongest economic performance of any of the advanced
    countries in the world. We're bringing the deficit down at a very rapid
    rate. We're increasing our investment in education and training. We're
    seriously dealing with crime, with welfare reform, with health care for
    the first time in decades. We have broken gridlock in the Congress;
    bills that languished around for 6 or 7 years like the Brady bill and
    the family and medical leave bill have passed. The economy in St. Louis
    is booming.
        There is no reason to be cynical. But the American people keep being
    told that things are bad and politicians are corrupt and the system's
    broken. That's just not true.
        You look at what we're coming to St. Louis to celebrate today, this
    Summer of Service. We've got 7,000 young Americans who are going to be
    earning money for their college education by working and making their
    communities safer all across this country; in the fall, 20,000 young
    Americans, doing community service work, earning money for an education,
    helping to solve problems. These kids aren't cynical. They know that
    their country is a good place, and they're going to make it better.
    We've got a lot of serious problems, and frankly, we can't afford this
    cynicism. But it's all the rage today.

    [An interviewer asked the President if growing cynicism could not be
    traced to incidents such as the disappearance of towels and bathrobes
    from the U.S.S. George Washington.]

        The President. Well, first of all, we're not sure that just the
    White House staff did that. There were press people. There were lots

    [[Page 1341]]

    of other people on that boat who were not members of the White House
    staff. We think it--I'm not entirely sure it was. And the George
    Washington is very, very upset by the press reports that those towels,
    which were obviously taken as souvenirs, were taken by all the White
    House staff. They never said that we stole anything. That's the kind of
    thing I'm talking about.
        But let me just say this: Someone in the White House personally
    reimbursed the George Washington for all of them, because they felt so
    bad. And the people who were running the aircraft carrier said that they
    were astonished that the White House staff was charged with taking all
    those things, that there were members of the press there, there were
    other people there on that carrier. They weren't at all sure that White
    House staff had done that. But someone on my staff was so upset that
    anybody had done it that they reimbursed them entirely so that they
    didn't lose a thing on it.
        But you know, I could give you a lot of examples--a year ago there
    was a widely reported story that I kept airplane traffic waiting an hour
    in Los Angeles to get a haircut in an airport. That wasn't true either.
    It wasn't true at the time. And I told the press it wasn't true. They
    ran the story anyway. Then 4 weeks later when the FAA filed their
    official report, they said, ``No, there were no planes kept waiting.''
        Now, I am not responsible for stories that are written that are not
    fully accurate or untrue, but it feeds into this cynicism.
        Last year the Congress and the President, according to all
    nonpartisan reports, had the most productive year working together,
    getting things done for America, dealing with difficult issues, of any
    first year of a President since the end of World War II, except Dwight
    Eisenhower's first year and President Johnson's first year, which were
    about the same. And to be frank, we did it under more difficult
    circumstances with tougher issues. I'll bet you nobody in America knows
    that. Now, that's not entirely our fault.
        Look at all the things you could have asked me about, and you just
    asked me that. Did you know that there were other people on that
    aircraft carrier? Did you know there were press people on the aircraft
    carrier? Did you know that the--that the carrier had been fully
    reimbursed out of the private pocket of a White House staff member who
    was so upset about it?
        Q. No, I didn't know that the White House----
        The President. No. No. Why didn't you know that? Because the press
    reporting it didn't say so.
        Q. Yes.
        The President. I mean, part of the problem in this country today is
    that--this is a good country with a lot of people working hard to get
    things done. And the American people are entitled to have some balanced
    and fair picture of what's going on.
        We've had 3.5 million new jobs come into this economy since I've
    been President, far more than in the previous 4 years combined. Most
    Americans don't even know it, because that's not the purpose of a lot of
    what's communicated to them.
        And I think that--I have a very high responsibility. I don't mind
    you asking me whether I should set an example on campaign contributions,
    but there are a lot of other examples that need to be set in this
    country. And I think the people who communicate to the American people
    need to ask themselves, what are we telling the people? Are we telling
    them the whole truth? Do they know what's good as well as what's bad in
    this country. And when we make a mistake, then we fess up to it.
        I think that there is a lot of cynicism in this country. But
    frankly, I think there are a lot of vested interests that are promoting
    the cynicism.

    The Religious Right

        Q. Mr. President, let's talk about that just a little bit. Today, or
    yesterday, the Republicans in the Senate asked you to disavow a remark
    that I believe Representative Fazio made about evangelical Christians.
    At the same time you've talked about extremists in the other party, the
    Republicans, that you say may be trying to launch a cultural war.
    They're attacking you in very personal, derogatory, moralistic terms. Is
    this the state of political debate in America today, where we call each
    other names?

    [[Page 1342]]

        The President. Of course it is. Let me say, first of all, you have
    never found me criticizing evangelical Christians. I have welcomed the
    involvement in our political system of all people and especially people
    of faith. I have bent over backwards as a Governor and as a President to
    respect the religious convictions of all Americans. I have strong
    religious convictions myself.
        But that is very different, that is very different from what is
    going on, when people come into the political system and they say that
    anybody that doesn't agree with them is Godless, anyone who doesn't
    agree with them is not a good Christian, anyone who doesn't agree with
    them is fair game for any wild charge, no matter how false, for any kind
    of personal, demeaning attack.
        I don't suppose there's any public figure that's ever been subject
    to any more violent, personal attacks than I have, at least in modern
    history, anybody's who's been President. That's fine. I deal with them.
    But I don't believe that it's the work of God. And I think that's what
    the issue is. I do not believe that people should be criticized for
    their religious convictions. But neither do I believe that people can
    put on the mantle of religion and then justify anything they say or do.
    I think that's what Mr. Fazio was talking about.
        We don't need a cultural war in this country. We've never done very
    well when our politics has been devoted to dividing us along grounds of
    race, religion, creed, morality. We haven't done very well. We've got a
    lot of serious challenges in this country. And we need to pull together
    and face them. Should we have arguments about moral issues? Of course we
    should. But they ought to be honest and careful and straightforward and
    respectful. And frankly, they're not today.
        Q. Are you talking about folks like the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who
    through his infomercials is selling a videotape critical of you?
        The President. Absolutely. Look at who he's talking to. Does he make
    full disclosure to the American people of the backgrounds of the people
    that he's interviewed that have made these scurrilous and false charges
    against me? Of course not. Is that in a good Christian spirit? I think
    it's questionable.
        But I think it's very important that the Democrats be careful--let
    me say this--to make a clear distinction between tactics with which they
    do not agree and radical positions with which they do not agree, and the
    whole notion of evangelical Christians being involved in our politics. I
    think that evangelical Christians should be good citizens, should be
    involved in our politics. They can be Republicans or Democrats; they can
    do whatever they want. But remember that Jesus threw the moneychangers
    out of the temple. He didn't try to take over the job of the
    moneychangers.

    Decline of the Dollar

        Q. Mr. President, world financial markets today report a continued
    slide of the U.S. dollar against other world currencies. What can or
    should the United States Government do to halt this slide?
        The President. Well, the Secretary of Treasury will have an
    announcement about it today. Let me say, just make one point about it.
    This is a development that is puzzling a lot of economists because our
    economy is performing so well. Our job growth is greater than any other
    of the advanced countries. Our unemployment rate is lower than any of
    the advanced countries, except Japan.
        In a funny way the currency values are running in the opposite
    direction of economic strength because Japan has a great trade surplus
    with us, as you know. If their economy is weak, no matter what they do,
    they can't lower the trade surplus because they don't have the money to
    buy more American products if their own economy is weak.
        So in a funny way, the perception of a weak economy in Japan has
    driven the American dollar down against the Japanese yen because their
    trade surplus has continued to be high. The German economy, thank
    goodness, is coming back a little bit, and that's a good thing, but it
    strengthens the German mark. The American dollar is actually stronger
    against a lot of other currencies in the world than it was a year ago. I
    think it's important that we not overreact to this. But the Secretary of
    the Treasury will have a statement today which will demonstrate the
    course that

    [[Page 1343]]

    we're taking. And I think it's a prudent thing to do.
        Q. If I sense anything today, it seems like a frustration on your
    part about an inability or just--for some reason, you haven't gotten
    across to the American people the messages that you want to get across.
    Is that pretty much true?
        The President.  Well, let me ask you something, I'm coming to St.
    Louis to inaugurate the Metrolink, a Federal project, which is good for
    St. Louis; to talk about the Summer of Service and the crime bill, the
    most important crime legislation in the history of the United States;
    and the national service program, which is going to have thousands of
    young people working to make our communities safer, all of those things,
    initiatives under my administration, and you didn't ask me about any of
    them.
        So I'm not frustrated about it exactly, but I tell you, I have
    determined that I'm going to be aggressive about it. After I get off the
    radio today with you, Rush Limbaugh will have 3 hours to say whatever he
    wants. And I won't have any opportunity to respond. And there's no truth
    detector. You won't get on afterwards and say what was true and what
    wasn't. So all I'm telling you is, I'm going to be far more aggressive
    because the American people are entitled to know what's going on good in
    this country.
        When I go overseas--I just got back from Europe, and the European
    press came up to me after--on several occasions--members of the press in
    Europe, and say, ``What is going on in your country? You've got things
    going well; you are nothing like they portray you; the things that are
    happening are positive; we are bewildered.'' Members of the press in
    Europe said that to me repeatedly. So I decided instead of being
    frustrated, I needed to be aggressive, and I'm going to be aggressive
    from here on in. I'm going to tell what I know the truth to be.
        Q. No more Mr. Nice Guy?
        The President. I'm going to be very nice about it, but I'm going to
    be aggressive about it.

    Health Care Reform

        Q. Well, let me ask you a little something about health care,
    because I know this has been the number one, or at least in the top
    three in terms of issues for you. And you promised long ago to veto any
    bill that crossed your desk that did not promise 100 percent health care
    coverage in the United States. You said you'd veto that, any bill that
    did not insure every single living American.
        The President. [Inaudible]--universal, we need to have universal
    coverage. That's what I said.
        Q. Are you willing to compromise on this right now if it turns out
    to be a political reality that Congress cannot go for the full universal
    health care?
        The President. Well, I think Congress will adopt universal health
    care. There may be some minor debates about exactly how to define that,
    but the real issue is, is will Congress provide health insurance to all
    working Americans? Will they provide a mechanism to do it? I still think
    there's a good chance they'll do it.
        Now, to go back to the first question you asked, there have been
    tens of millions of dollars in kind of disinformation spent to falsely
    characterize the approach that I wanted to take. I am very flexible and
    always have been about how we do it. But I do believe that it is not
    rational for the United States to be the only country in the world that
    can't figure out how to guarantee health care coverage to middle class
    working Americans. And in fact, we're going in reverse. We're losing
    ground. We've got a smaller percentage of our people insured than we did
    10 years ago. All the other advanced countries insure everybody and yet
    we spend 40 percent more of our income on health care than anybody else
    does. It doesn't make any sense to me.
        So I think Congress will find a way to do this. I think they'll
    measure up for the challenge. And I'm going to keep working with them. I
    think there's lots of different ways to do it, and I think we'll find a
    way to do it. I'm very, very hopeful now. And I think Mr. Gephardt's
    hopeful now.

    [Representative Gephardt stated that Congress is making progress on
    health care reform.]

    [[Page 1344]]

        Q. Mr. President, on behalf of everyone listening to KMOX, thank you
    very much for joining us this morning.
        The President. Thank you. Goodbye.

    Note: The interview began at 11:07 a.m. The President spoke from Air
    Force One en route to St. Louis. In his remarks, he referred to Rev.
    Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio and television
    commentators. A tape was not available for verification of the content
    of these remarks.