    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 25 (Monday, June 27, 1994)]
    [Pages 1305-1308]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Interview With Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel on ``Today''

    June 20, 1994

        Q. Forty years ago, Harry Truman, who was staying at the Waldorf
    Astoria Hotel here in New York City, decided to take a morning stroll
    down West 49th Street. There, the story goes, he noticed a group of
    onlookers watching the ``Today'' show through its street-level glass
    window. He decided to join the crowd, and thus this unusual picture.
        Today, minus the stroll, we are pleased to welcome another President
    to our street-level digs. Mr. President, good morning. Welcome to Studio
    1A.
        The President. Good morning, Bryant. I wish I were with Harry Truman
    today, out there on the street, looking in.

    North Korea

        Q. Well, Katie and I are very grateful that you're allowing us the
    opportunity to interview you this morning. Thank you for taking the
    time.
        Let's start with North Korea, if we might. Former President Jimmy
    Carter, just back from the Korean Peninsula and meetings with Kim Il-
    song, has said that he believes the crisis has been defused and at this
    point any sanctions would be counterproductive. Do his opinions reflect
    the views of your administration in any way? And if not, could you
    detail the extent to which his views and his trip may have changed your
    approach?
        The President. Well, the North Koreans asked President Carter to
    come as a private citizen. He called me, and we agreed that the trip
    might be productive, that he would go, he would listen, he would
    faithfully state the views of our administration and reaffirm that our
    interest is in seeing that North Korea honor its commitments under the
    Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its commitment to a nonnuclear
    Korean Peninsula.
        While there, when he notified us about what they were saying, we put
    out a statement, which he reaffirmed, which simply said that if North
    Korea wishes to talk and is willing to freeze their nuclear program,
    that is, not continue reprocessing or refueling while they talk, then
    that would be a step forward. He says that Kim Il-song made that commit-

    [[Page 1306]]

    ment to him. Now we have to verify that. So that's the question.
        We have, surely, something to gain by talking with the North
    Koreans, by avoiding further steps toward a crisis. But we have to know
    there's been a change. So we'll be looking to verify that. And that's
    really the question. This is a question of fact now.
        There are some hopeful signs, the willingness to meet between North
    and South. But the critical question is, are they willing to freeze this
    nuclear program while we try to work these differences out?
        Q. You say there are hopeful signs. Are you prepared to respond with
    positive signs of your own, or have you reason to believe that Kim Il-
    song's history suggests there's a wide divergence between what he says
    and what he does?
        The President. Well, I think what we have to do is to look to the
    present and the future and say we will evaluate words in terms of
    actions. We have the capacity, if the international inspectors and the
    equipment are going to be left there, to evaluate whether, in fact, the
    nuclear program has been frozen. If it's going to be frozen, then
    clearly that is grounds for talking. But we have to know what the facts
    are, and we'll be attempting to determine that.

    Health Care Reform

        Q. Mr. President, moving to matters closer at home now, yesterday on
    ``Meet the Press'' Senator Moynihan, chairman of the Finance Committee,
    said that there was no chance that Congress will pass a health care plan
    that will give all Americans immediate insurance coverage. If that, in
    fact, is the case, will you accept a plan that will provide universal
    coverage somewhere down the road?
        The President. Well, Katie, our plan required a phase-in. It's going
    to take some time for the States and for others who would have to
    provide the insurance who don't now to phase it in. But I think the
    important thing is that we should not walk away from this Congress
    without a commitment to cover everyone. The so-called 91 percent
    solution, if it's a permanent solution, essentially would guarantee what
    we have now. The poor would get health care; the wealthy would get
    health care; the middle class would be at risk of losing it. One in ten
    Americans would not have any health care all the time, and others would
    be losing it.
        Keep in mind, we now have 3 million more Americans without health
    insurance than we had 3 years ago. The situation in terms of coverage is
    getting worse, more and more middle class Americans at risk.
        All I want to do is to give the American people what the President
    and the Congress and the Federal Government employees have. And my
    proposal would cost small businesses much, much less than the last
    minimum wage increase that President Bush signed.
        Now, I admit that we needed to make some changes in our original
    proposal. I always said we would. We want it now to be less bureaucratic
    and less regulatory, and the proposals are. They reflect some changes
    that we have agreed to. But we have to cover all Americans. And that's
    the real issue.
        Q. So you're saying some of the bills that are being discussed in
    Senate Finance which will provide insurance coverage for 91 percent,
    that if those bills, or a bill like that comes to your desk, you'll veto
    it?
        The President. What I'm saying is I don't think it will come to my
    desk for the simple reason that if you look at what the bill does, the
    bill that covers 91 percent of Americans, the proposal would cost middle
    class taxpayers more tax money, essentially subsidize low-income people,
    and leave middle class workers either without health insurance or at
    risk of losing it because of all the problems we have in the system
    today. So I really don't believe it is a solution.
        I know that there had been tens of millions of dollars in special
    interest money spent to convince the American people that our plan is
    wrong. I know that we needed to make some changes in our plan. But I
    also know that the right thing for America is to do what every other
    advanced country has done in guaranteeing middle class working people
    health care that can't be taken away.
        When Harry Truman stopped by the ``Today'' show 40 years ago and
    looked in at Dave Garroway--who, by the way, was the first fellow I ever
    saw that wore a bow tie, so I remember this very well--he knew that. And
    they beat him to pieces over health care.

    [[Page 1307]]

    And they drove the popularity of his proposal down. And he was never
    able to pass it. But Harry Truman was right then, and we're right now.
        The right thing for America's values, for work, for family, is to
    provide health care for all Americans. It doesn't have to be done
    tomorrow. It ought to be phased in over a period of just a few years.
    But we ought not to walk away without a bill that provides health care
    to all Americans.

    Haiti

        Q. Mr. President, let's turn to Haiti, if we could for a moment.
    It's being reported in this morning's paper that your administration is
    trying to induce Haiti's three top military leaders to leave Haiti for a
    comfortable life in exile, perhaps by managing somehow to pay them off.
    Is that something that's being pursued? And if you can get them to leave
    Haiti, are you at all interested in bringing them to justice after that?
        The President. We have always said, if you go back to the beginning
    of this administration, that we had no interest in trying to persecute
    anybody. President Aristide himself agreed on an amnesty proclamation as
    part of the agreement we had last year. The military leaders broke that
    agreement. We are still looking at any number of options to try to
    restore democracy to Haiti so that that troubled country can begin to
    have some economic growth and the people who have been so oppressed by
    the military dictators can escape their oppression. So we have a number
    of options under consideration.
        What happens to those who violate the law, I think, depends in part
    on what the democratic government decides to do. But President Aristide
    all along has said that he was interested in honoring the original
    conditions of the Governors Island Agreement. It was the other side
    which broke them.

    Health Care Reform

    [Following a commercial break, it was announced that the President would
    take questions from persons outside the studio. Then a participant asked
    if an additional tax would be used to help small businesses pay for
    health care.]

        The President. Well, we propose to make up that difference in two
    ways: first of all, by raising the cigarette tax and, secondly, by
    achieving other savings in Government programs. Then we ask the very
    biggest businesses in the country, who are going to get a big reduction,
    many--most of them, from our health care plan because we're going to
    spread the cost more evenly throughout the country, to pay a small
    amount of money into a program that will support the subsidies for small
    business and continuing medical research.
        This will work because of the competitive pressures to hold health
    care costs down if we get everybody in the system. That is, I think that
    it's hard for most Americans to realize this, but we're already spending
    about 40 percent more of our income, as a percentage of our income, than
    any other country on Earth. And yet we're the only country that doesn't
    require everybody to have some health coverage.
        So it seems to me that the simplest way to do it is to just take the
    system we have, which is an employer-based system that over 80 percent
    of the Americans are covered by, and just extend it to everybody. But in
    order to do it, because we have so many small employers, you've got to
    give them a discount. And I wouldn't do this in this way if I weren't
    convinced that it would help the economy in the medium term and over the
    long term. We can't do anything that will run unemployment up. This will
    balance out the scales, in my judgment, and help more small businesses
    create jobs.
        Keep in mind, most small businesses are giving health insurance now
    and paying 35 percent or 40 percent more than bigger business and
    Government. And as a consequence, that undermines their ability to
    compete. They can't get fair rates. And the proposal we have, I will say
    again, will cost small business considerably less than the minimum wage
    increase that President Bush signed a couple of years before I became
    President.

    High School Reunion

    [A participant from Park Ridge, IL, was introduced.]

        The President. That's a great town.

    [[Page 1308]]

    [The participant, who graduated from high school with Hillary Clinton,
    asked if their 30th reunion could be held at the White House.]

        The President. That's a decision for her to make. But I'll bet you
    she would like to welcome you here at the White House. I'm trying to
    work out an opportunity to welcome my 30th high school reunion class to
    the White House as well. I think both of us would like that very much.
    And I will tell her that you asked. I'm sure--I hope she's watching this
    morning, but I'll tell her. And I'll bet she would love that.

    O.J. Simpson

        Q. Mr. President, let me close, if I could, with one that isn't a
    national issue but one I'm sure you have some feelings on. The entire
    country, as you know, watched the O.J. Simpson drama unfold last week.
    What are your own personal thoughts about the fall from grace of such an
    American hero?
        The President. Well, it's a genuine tragedy. In some ways it's a
    story as old as time; in some ways it's a modern story. It's of course
    the biggest tragedy because two people were killed. Children were robbed
    of a mother, a family's lost loved ones, and a man widely admired in
    this country is now caught in the web of a terrible tragedy. But I have
    to say that after we all watched it in excruciating detail last weekend,
    the time has now come for the legal process to take its course. I think
    the less the rest of us say from now on in until the legal process takes
    its course, the better.
        Q. Mr. President, we thank you very much for taking the time to be
    with us----
        The President. Thank you.
        Q. ----helping to christen our new studio. We appreciate it and hope
    you'll come back.
        Q. Next time President Clinton, come here to New York and see us.
        The President. Oh, I'd like that. I'd like to be looking--I'd like
    to be on the outside looking in, asking you questions. [Laughter]
        Q. For a change, I guess, right?
        The President. That's right.

    Note: The interview began at 7:09 a.m. The President spoke via satellite
    from the Oval Office at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to
    the first ``Today'' show host, Dave Garroway. A tape was not available
    for verification of the content of this interview.