[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 9 (Monday, March 6, 1995)]
[Pages 347-357]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference

March 3, 1995

    The President. Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, now that the 
vote on the balanced budget amendment has passed, it is time for 
Congress to go forward to write a disciplined budget that brings the 
deficit down, cuts unnecessary Government spending, and continues to 
invest in our future.
    Two years ago, 27 days after I became President, I presented such a 
budget to the Congress. It has succeeded in reducing our deficit by over 
$600 billion, while still increasing our investment in our children, in 
education, and in our economic growth.
    As of today it has been 58 days since the new Republican majority 
took office. Congress has a deadline for passing a budget resolution of 
April the 15th. The American people now are entitled to see this work go 
forward. When the Congress proposes their budget and passes their 
resolution, of course, I will work with them. As I have said repeatedly, 
we can get more deficit reduction in responsible health care reform, but 
I learned last year that that is clearly something we must do working 
together with both parties.
    The debate that is going on in Washington today is about more, 
obviously, than simply the deficit and the budget. It is also about the 
role of Government. And you can see it running through every issue, from 
the laws being debated now in the Congress to the question of the 
rescission legislation before the Congress. The old Washington view, I 
think it's fair to say, is that the Federal Government could provide 
solutions to America's problems. The Republican contract view reflects 
in many cases an outright hostility to governmental action, although in 
some cases a curious willingness to increase the Federal Government's 
control over our daily lives.
    My view, what has loosely been called the new Democratic view or the 
New Covenant view, is to be skeptical of Government but to recognize 
that it has a role in our lives and a partnership role to play.
    We have made the Government smaller. We have given more power to 
States and localities and to private citizens. Our proposals would 
further accelerate those trends. We have, as you learned here in this 
room just a few days ago, been working for months on a serious effort to 
reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation.
    But we believe Government has important work to do, to expand 
opportunity, to give people the tools they need to make the most of 
their own lives, to enhance our security. That's why we support adding 
100,000 police. That's why we support more affordable college loans. 
That's why we supported the family leave bill. That's why I support the 
minimum wage legislation now before Congress and why I do not want to 
reduce our investment in education in our future.
    The Republicans now have proposed to cut education, nutritional help 
for mothers and schoolchildren, antidrug efforts in our schools, and 
other things which, to me, appear to target children in order to pay for 
tax cuts for upper income Americans. I do not believe that that is 
consistent with our interests as we build America into the 21st century 
and we move into this new global economy.
    So my job, it seems to me, is to continue to push my view, what I 
believe is the essence of the New Covenant: more opportunity, more 
responsibility; reform welfare but don't punish people, require work. 
This is the sort of thing we need more of. And I look forward to this 
debate. I think it's healthy. I think it's good for the American people.

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    And I would like to begin now by answering your questions. Helen 
[Helen Thomas, United Press International].

Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell

    Q. Mr. President, did you try to talk Senator Campbell out of 
jumping ship? What does it portend for the Democratic Party, and what 
does it mean in terms of your leadership?
    The President. Well, I talked to him this morning because he called 
the White House and said he wanted to talk to me. And so I called him. 
And we had a good conversation, and he pointed out that he had voted 
with me over 80 percent of the time in the last 2 years, that he 
essentially supported our economic policies, our education policies, and 
our social policies, and that he would not change that. It was obvious 
to me that there were some Colorado-specific factors at work. I wish he 
hadn't done it. I think it was a mistake. But I hope he will continue to 
vote in the way he has in the past.
    Q. Do you think there will be more defectors?
    The President. No. I have no reason to believe it. He'd been talking 
about this for some time, we had heard, because of--apparently because 
of some things that happened out there that I'm not fully familiar with. 
I wish he hadn't done it, but it's done. All I can do now is hope that 
he'll keep voting the way he has the last 2 years. If he does, it will 
make a contribution to moving the country forward.

Russia

    Q. Mr. President, there are growing strains in relations with Russia 
over the crackdown in Chechnya and the planned sale of nuclear 
technology to Iran. Does U.S. aid to Moscow give us any leverage on 
these problems? Is it time to consider an alternative to Boris Yeltsin, 
as Bob Dole says that you've got too much invested in? And have you 
finally decided on the timing of a summit with Mr. Yeltsin?
    The President. The answer to the last question is, no, we have not 
determined the exact date. As you know, we committed to meet with each 
other on a rotating and regular basis, so I have to sustain that 
commitment in the first part of this year. He asked me to come at the 
time they are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War 
II. There are some scheduling complications here. We're working through 
it. It shouldn't be long before you have an answer.
    Let me respond to the second set of questions. First of all, I don't 
think it's fair to say the United States or that our administration has 
a Yeltsin-centered policy, or that it is time for the United States to 
determine to deal with someone else. What we want is a democratic Russia 
which continues to support reform within the country and respects the 
borders of its neighbors. That is what we want. We want a Russia that 
helps us to reduce further the nuclear threat in the world. Those are 
our fundamental interests.
    Boris Yeltsin has been elected the President of a country that has a 
Constitution and a democratic system. He has a term of office. He is 
fulfilling that term of office. I think it would be curious, indeed, if 
the United States were to say that we have a separate set of rules for 
these new democracies: When things don't go the way we want, or they 
follow some policy we don't like, well, then, we decide that we should 
invest ourselves in some other person.
    We should support the elected representatives of the people, who are 
duly produced by constitutional judgments in a democracy. That's what I 
believe, and that's what I'm doing. When we differ with Russia, we say 
so. When they differ with us, they say so. But on the whole, let's not 
forget that a remarkable amount of progress has been made in that 
country and a remarkable amount of progress has been made in our 
relationship. They have no troops in Eastern Europe. They have no troops 
in the Baltics. They have helped us to implement START I. We are working 
on ratification of START II. We are working across a whole range of 
issues.
    Do we have differences with them? Of course, we do. But on balance, 
this relationship is one that is in the interest of the United States to 
continue to support.
    Brit [Brit Hume, ABC News].
    Q. You indicated yesterday agreement with the Democratic Senators 
who balked on the balanced budget amendment because of

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their objections to the current and continuing practice of borrowing 
surplus Social Security funds to offset the deficit. In light of your 
attitude on that, sir, I wonder if you're prepared to take a lead on 
that issue by proposing that that practice be stopped and by revising, 
if necessary, your budget and your budget projections to take account of 
the change.
    The President. Well, wait a minute, there are two issues in which 
that works. There are two ways in which the Social Security thing works. 
The first is that we clearly have been using payroll taxes for 12 years 
now, long before I ever came here, to minimize the size of the deficit 
exclusive of the payroll tax, so that from 1983 forward, previous 
Democratic Congresses and Republican Presidents made judgments that it 
was better and politically more palatable to tax payroll than income, 
even though it's a burden on working people and small businesses.
    The other issue, however, Brit, to be fair, was that were we going 
to cut Social Security benefits to reduce the deficit and count that 
against deficit reduction. And that's what I have been emphasizing. That 
is, if Social Security is producing a surplus today as it is and if it's 
going to have to be reformed on its own terms for the 21st century when 
all the baby boomers retire, then I did not believe it was right for us 
to effect cuts in Social Security simply to reduce the deficit. I do not 
think that is right. I think that is wrong. So that was my position.
    I have presented my budget. I stand behind my budget. I see that 
there are some specific cuts the Republicans have suggested that I also 
would think about, I see in their rescission package. But I am going to 
wait now until they do their constitutional duty, which is to present a 
budget which is something that has not happened. Then I will work with 
them.
    The key on this is not to reduce Social Security benefits. The key 
is to reduce health care costs.
    John [John Palmer, NBC News]. Welcome back.

Affirmative Action

    Q. Thank you, sir. I'd like to ask you a question, if I might, about 
affirmative action. I know your administration is now reviewing all of 
those affirmative action regulations, but there's some concern that this 
might be the prelude to a backing off of those policies. In fact, Jesse 
Jackson earlier this week expressed the opinion that maybe if you did, 
he might even run against you. But my question, really, on that issue 
is, what about the many Americans who really feel they have been 
punished by affirmative action? And I'd like to get your comments on 
that.
    The President. Let me tell you about the review I've ordered and 
comment on the affirmative action thing. First of all, our 
administration is against quotas and guaranteed results, and I have been 
throughout my public career. I have always been for trying to help 
people develop their capacities so they could fully participate. And I 
have supported things--when I was a Governor, I supported, for example, 
minority scholarship programs--in my public life, I have done that.
    I want to make a couple of comments here. First, I have asked for a 
review of all the Federal Government's so-called affirmative action 
programs because I think it's important that we analyze, number one, 
what they do and what--a lot of times people mean different things when 
they use affirmative action. For example, I take it there is virtually 
no opposition to the affirmative action programs that are the most 
successful in our country, which are the ones adopted by the United 
States military, which have not resulted in people of inferior quality 
or ability getting preferential treatment but have resulted in an 
intense effort to develop the capacities of everybody who joins the 
military so they can fully participate and contribute as much as 
possible and has resulted in the most integrated institution in our 
society.
    So I want to know what these programs are, exactly. I want to know 
whether they are working. I want to know whether there is some other way 
we can reach any objective without giving a preference by race or gender 
in some of these programs. Those are the three questions we need to ask.
    And let me make a general observation. I asked myself when this 
debate started, what have we done since I've been President that has 
most helped minorities. And I think that--I would say that the things we 
have

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done that have most helped are things that have benefited all people who 
needed them: expanding the Head Start program; expanding the college 
loan program; expanding the earned-income tax credit, the working 
families tax credit which has given an average tax cut of $1,000 to 
families with incomes under $25,000; the empowerment zones. And one of 
them, one of the empowerment zones went to an all-white area in 
Kentucky. But the disproportionate impact was on people who'd been left 
behind in our cities. And one thing that the rescission package would 
take away, the community development banks, which I think would be a 
terrible mistake, which is designed to empower people through the free 
enterprise system to make the most of their own lives.
    So I would say to you, where we can move ahead based on need we 
ought to move forward, and we shouldn't move backward. There's still a 
lot of people who aren't living up to their capacity in this country, 
and it's hurting the rest of us. And so, I want this analysis to finish. 
I will then make a decision in a prompt way, and I'll tell the American 
people what I think, and I will proceed to act in the context of the 
Government.
    Meanwhile, I urge all of you to read the history, in light of the 
other, the political comments you made--to read the history of how these 
affirmative action programs got started and who was on what side when 
they began. It's very interesting to go back through the last 25 years 
and see all the twists and turns.
    The American people want an end to discrimination. They want 
discrimination, where it exists, to be punished. They don't want people 
to have an unfair break that is unwarranted. We can work this out, and 
I'm determined to do it.
    Rita [Rita Braver, CBS News].

Balanced Budget Amendment and the 1996 Election

    Q. Mr. President, it seems like every day another Republican is 
jumping into the Presidential race. It also seems like every day we are 
reading about your election campaign and who is in and who is out. I 
wonder if you could tell us a little bit about the kind of organization 
that you're putting together.
    And I also wanted to ask you about a comment that Senator Dole made 
yesterday when he was asked about why he didn't meet the Democrats' 
demands to take Social Security out of the fight over the balanced 
budget amendment. He said, ``You have a President who has abdicated his 
responsibility. If you had a real President down there, we might think 
about it.'' What's your response to that in the context of his 
Presidential aspirations?
    The President. My response to that is that Senator Dole's been part 
of Washington for 30 years, and he hasn't always been in the minority. 
And when I got here, policies supported by his Presidents and deficits 
run up under Republican administrations--remember, they had this town 20 
of the last 26 years; they were making all of these proposals--had given 
this country a $4-trillion debt, quadrupled--quadrupled--in the 12 years 
of the Republican ascendancy.
    And since I've been President, we've got a lower deficit, a lower 
unemployment rate, a lower inflation rate, a higher growth rate. We have 
cut the size of the Federal Government, something they did not do, and 
still found a way to invest more in the education of our children. And I 
might add, we have expanded trade more than they did, supported 
democracy, and supported a reduction of the nuclear threat. So we've got 
a safer world and a stronger economy. Now, I think that's a pretty good 
record, and I'll be glad to put it up against all that kind of name-
calling and all of the stuff they want to do.
    But you know what I really want to say is, we've got to stop all 
this. It's March of 1995. I mean, I was a Governor, and I was at a 
severe disadvantage, and I didn't even announce for President until 
October of '91. I mean, we can't have everybody all torn up and upset 
about playing politics here for the next 6, 7 months. We've got a lot of 
work to do, and I think we should relax and do it.
    I will, in an appropriate way, organize and proceed with my own 
efforts, but I've already given you my speech. We've got more peace, 
more prosperity, and fewer problems than we had when I showed up. And 
meanwhile, I'd like to work with them to continue to make progress. We 
can do things together.

[[Page 351]]

    And I think that that Social Security remark is--you know, they 
could have had the balanced budget amendment if they had done what the 
Democrats wanted on Social Security, and they chose the political issue 
instead. That was their judgment. They made their judgment, so they 
shouldn't blame someone else for a decision that they made. It was a 
decision they made, not me.
    Q. Are you putting together an organization, though, yourself now?
    The President. Well, I'm not actively involved as they are, but I 
will organize and proceed. As I told you, I intend to run for 
reelection. But I think--I can see right now, every day, everybody that 
wants to run for this job is going to be trying to make some remark or 
some move that runs everybody else halfway up the flag pole. And we've 
got enough politics in this town on a regular basis without injecting 
that into it. I wish--I want everybody to relax, take a deep breath, and 
go back to work. Let's try to do something for the American people for a 
year, and then we can have an election. We'll have plenty of time for 
the politics.
    Go ahead.

Decline of the Dollar

    Q. Mr. President, are you concerned that the value of dollars is 
falling again? And would you like to see the Fed do more to boost it?
    The President. You know, one of the things I've learned since I've 
been here is that anything I say on this subject is wrong. [Laughter] So 
the Treasury Department is taking appropriate action today, and I don't 
think I should say anything else.
    Go ahead, Mara [Mara Liasson, National Public Radio].

Affirmative Action

    Q. Just another question on affirmative action, Mr. President. When 
you announced your review you said, we have to stop defending things 
that are not defensible. Do you think that rules that mandate a certain 
percentage of Federal contracts be set aside for minority firms--are 
those still necessary and isn't that guaranteeing results, the kind of 
thing you say you're now opposed to?
    The President. Well, I want to look at how they're implemented. For 
one thing, if you look at the rules and what they mean, it's difficult 
to draw a conclusion about whether they even do what they were supposed 
to do in the first place. But I want--I will make comments. I am almost 
done with this review, and I will make comments when I finish about what 
I think we should do, and then I will do whatever it is that I can do 
within my executive authority to go forward.
    I do not--I want to continue to fight discrimination where it 
exists. I want to continue to give people a chance to develop their 
capacities where they need help. I want us to emphasize need-based 
programs where we can because they work better and have a bigger impact 
and generate broader support. But let me finish what we're doing here, 
and then I will try to answer all the details.
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. Yes, Sarah [Sarah McClendon, McClendon News].

Teen Pregnancy

    Q. Sir, we hear a lot of talk these days about these teenage 
pregnant women. Most of them are poor and black and that sort of thing. 
Well, that's peanuts, the cost of that program, compared to what we are 
spending on arms sales around the world, making wars and then we have to 
go out and clean up when the famines that came along afterwards. And 
we've buying untested weapons. Why don't we work on the billions of war 
and have a little peace?
    The President. Well, we should do that, but we should also work on 
reducing teen pregnancy.
    Go ahead.

Mexico

    Q. Mr. President, Mexico is going through very difficult times. The 
Republicans are asking for more and more information from you on the 
Mexican crisis. How do you see the election situation right now? And do 
you think things are working there or----
    The President. Well, I think--first of all, it seems that President 
Zedillo is working very hard to try to develop a program, an economic 
program that will balance two interests: his desire to continue to be 
able to

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make Mexico attractive to investors outside the country, which is 
necessary for the long-term growth, and the need to keep Mexico strong 
enough and responsive enough to the domestic business interests and the 
working people of the country.
    This is a difficult period. I think everyone would admit who has 
worked on this that the problems turned out to be more difficult and of 
long--more duration, more thorny than had originally been thought back 
in December and January. But I believe that he's moving in the right 
direction. And Mexico plainly has moved toward more democracy, more 
openness, and more market economics. And I did what I did because I 
thought it was good for America's jobs and America's long-term interest. 
I still believe that. And I believe it's in our interest to support that 
movement toward democracy and openness throughout Latin America, 
beginning with Mexico.
    Deborah [Deborah Mathis, Gannett News Service].

Affirmative Action

    Q. Mr. President, forgive me for pressing you on this, but if I'm 
not mistaken, you've always been in favor of affirmative action, and in 
fact, you have practiced it. Why now the hesitation?
    The President. I have always--that's right. I'm glad you asked. I 
have always practiced it. But let's look at how I practiced it. Look at 
my appointments to the Federal bench, ones for which, I might add, I've 
been regularly and roundly attacked for trying to achieve diversity here 
in this community. I read something in the paper about once a month, 
people jumping on me because I've appointed more women and more 
minorities to the Federal bench than my predecessors combined at this 
point in our terms--my last three predecessors combined. And oh, by the 
way, they sometimes say, his appointees also have the highest rating 
from the American Bar Association of the last three Presidents.
    I have practiced affirmative action here the way that I perceive the 
United States military has practiced it. I have made an extra effort to 
look for qualified candidates who could serve with distinction and make 
a contribution to this country and make the Federal bench reflective of 
the American population. I have not done it with any quota system in 
mind, and I have not guaranteed anybody a job. I have made an extra 
effort to do that.
    The military starts before that. They have made an extra effort to 
develop the capacities of people who come to them with great raw 
ability, but maybe a disadvantaged background. Is that wrong? I don't 
think it is. And I'm not backing off of that.
    The question is--here is the narrow question--the question is: If 
we're not for quotas in results, and we are for developing everybody's 
capacities, what do we do with all those rules and regulations and laws 
that really are in a gray area, that are really in a gray area where 
there is, let's say, a minority scholarship or a contracting set-aside 
that Mara asked about, that really is often got around because of the 
way they are written? I want to review those. I do not want to see us 
stop trying to develop the abilities of all Americans. I do not want to 
see us move away from trying to concentrate our resources in the areas 
of greatest need.
    But I would say again, I think most minorities have been helped most 
by the programs in this country that have been targeted toward broad-
based needs. And ironically, if you go back to the beginning of this 
whole affirmative action debate, it started in the late sixties and many 
civil rights leaders at the time argued against affirmative action 
programs because they thought we'd wind up in the debate we are now 
having 25 years later.
    I think we need to look at the programs, look at the facts, and ask 
the questions I just asked: How does this work? Is it fair? Is it 
necessary? Is there an alternative way to achieve the objective? But in 
terms of taking aggressive initiatives to develop the capacities of 
people, should we keep doing that? You bet we should. How should we do 
it in the law? That's the question.

Illegal Immigration

    George [George Condon, Copley News Service].
    Q. Mr. President, in the past you have bragged on Operation 
Gatekeeper. Governor Pete Wilson last week said that was a failure,

[[Page 353]]

and the numbers from the INS seem to back that up. Are you rethinking in 
any way your approach to----
    The President. How can you say that? Because ----
    Q. In the first 5 months.
    The President. Yes, but what happened was, we had big problems in 
immigration when the Mexican economy started to go down, as I told 
everyone. But we have a lot of evidence, too, from what has been done in 
El Paso and in other places that we are stopping more people.
    I think the key is--my answer is, we need even more border guards, 
we need to accelerate the deportation of people who have been found 
through the criminal justice system or otherwise who are illegal aliens, 
and we need to accelerate our ability to find people primarily in the 
workplace. And if we do that--that's part of the budget that I have 
submitted to the Congress. And if we do that, we will reduce the number 
of illegal immigrants, and we will accelerate rapidly the pace by which 
we are deporting those who have come here illegally.
    So my answer to Governor Wilson is, the problem got bigger during 
the last 5 months because of the problems in Mexico, but we have made a 
difference. That's my first answer. My second answer is, it's a lot more 
than was done before I got here by the previous administration and by 
the United States Senate when he was a part of it. So I want him, 
instead of criticizing me for doing more than they did, he ought to keep 
working with us so we can do even more. That's what my budget does, I 
hope the Congress will adopt it. Yes.

Administration Ethics

    Q. Mr. President, you have an independent counsel investigating 
yourself and your wife. You have another independent counsel 
investigating your former Agriculture Secretary. The Justice Department 
is soon about to make decisions on whether independent counsels should 
investigate your Secretaries of Commerce, Housing, and Transportation.
    Two questions: One, if any of those three are going to be subject to 
an independent counsel investigation, would you like to see them resign 
to take care of that? And two, combining the independent counsels with 
those others, like Webster Hubbell and Roger Altman, who have resigned 
after some ethical problems, how can you explain what's happened to your 
administration after you came into office promising the most ethical 
administration in history?
    The President: Well, first of all, let's look at each one of them. 
The only people--Roger Altman resigned even though the finding was that 
he had violated no law and no rule of ethics. And he made a major 
contribution to this country. Let's just look at that.
    Secondly, all the other examples--Secretary Espy was the single 
person who resigned because the subject of his activity involved things 
he had done as Secretary of Agriculture, which, I might add, in the 
aggregate, amounted to a few thousand dollars, all of which he has 
reimbursed, in return for which he got a special counsel with 33 lawyers 
and a historian.
    All these other things--including mine--I would remind you, I am the 
first President in history ever to have a special counsel involving 
activities that have nothing to do with my work as President, nothing to 
do with the campaign for President, that all predated that, and that 
arose when there had not been a single, solitary serious assertion that 
I had done anything illegal. But I said, ``Fine, we'll look into it. If 
it makes people feel better and to have more confidence, I'll be glad to 
do it.''
    We live in a time now where, the first thing people call for is a 
special counsel. I don't know if you saw Susan Estrich's article in USA 
Today yesterday, but I commend it to all of you to read. I mean, we 
really have to ask ourselves whether we are creating a climate here in 
which a lot of people will be reluctant to serve. I saw the U.S. News 
essay on Dr. Foster. I commend them for that. It was a--I was quite 
moved by it. Now that I say it, the rest of you will probably jump on 
them since I said it. [Laughter]
    But I'm just telling you, I think--no one has accused me of abusing 
my authority here as President. Everybody knows that I have tougher 
ethics rules than any previous President. For example, when we had the 
controversy where the Speaker misspoke about the drug usage in the White 
House and we

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found out that it was absolutely wrong, we found out that I have much, 
much tougher rules than the Congress does on random drug testing for 
employees, for example. So if you look at the rules and you look at the 
facts instead of the number of investigations, then there's no way to 
control that under that new law. All you've got to do is have certain 
number of Members of Congress ask, and then it triggers this prospect.
    I want to just point out, again, if you look at the work that people 
have done in their public capacity since I have been President, you 
would be hard-pressed to cite examples that constitute abuse of 
authority.
    Secondly, I have continued to argue for lobbying reform and campaign 
finance reform, two things which I see are still apparently very low on 
the priority list of the new Congress. If you want to clean Washington 
up, what we ought to do is to reform the lobbying rules. That's the best 
thing we can do.

START II

    Q. Earlier this week, the Central Intelligence Agency went up to the 
Hill and said that the prospects for the START II, the Strategic Arms 
Reduction Treaty, in the Russian Duma are getting dimmer every day. 
Number one, I'd like to know if you agree with that intelligence 
estimate. Number two, have you conferred with President Yeltsin about 
what could be done to salvage the treaty in Russia, or what President 
Yeltsin could do to salvage it, if, in fact, it fails on the initial 
vote?
    The President. Well, first of all, ever since we started dealing 
with the former Communist countries with elected Parliaments, both they 
and we have been hearing how our Congress or their Parliaments wouldn't 
take the next step, whatever the next step was. I remember all the 
people who said there was no way in the world we'd get the Ukrainian 
Rada to ratify the Non-Proliferation Treaty. And there have been all 
these sort of gloomy predictions about what this Congress would do. But 
in the end, the democracies normally wind up doing the right thing and 
moving forward on these issues.
    Therefore, do I believe that eventually the Duma will adopt START 
II? I do. And that's one of the reasons that I think it's important that 
we continue to engage with Russia and I continue to work with the 
Yeltsin administration and with President Yeltsin to try to get things 
like that done.
    But look, look at all the things that have happened here in the last 
2 years. It's not predictable what parliamentary bodies are going to do 
in these tumultuous times. But do I think we'll prevail on that? I do.
    Karen [Karen Ball, New York Daily News].

Whitewater

    Q. Following on what you said about independent counsels, Newt 
Gingrich has called for Democrats attacking him on ethics to pay his 
legal bills and reimburse the Government if the charges prove 
groundless. You face $2 million in legal bills. Whitewater is probably 
going to cost taxpayers at least $5 million. Following on what Gingrich 
says, do you think Republicans should have to pay for this if Whitewater 
is groundless?
    The President. You know, I don't want to personalize it. I really 
tried to just cooperate and go along with this thing and not talk about 
it at all. I've told the American people I didn't do anything wrong, and 
I've told the truth. We'll just see what happens. But I don't want to 
personalize it.
    What I meant to say is that, looking forward, what I think we should 
ask ourselves is, is this really the way we should be running a 
democracy, the way this operates. But I don't want to--anything I say 
about my own situation I think is not helpful. I think that I should be 
treated--I don't want to be involved in it that way. I want to think 
about what's good for America after the Whitewater investigation is 
over. Let's look forward. Forget about me. Let's let this thing unfold 
that involves me in an established way.
    Yes.

Bosnia and Croatia

    Q. Mr. President, if we could come back to foreign policy. Are you 
prepared to send American troops to Croatia at the end of the month to 
help in the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers if President Tudjman sticks 
to his deadline? And can you foresee beyond that any circumstances in 
which you would

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keep those troops there or expand the number of American ground troops 
in the region to help avert the wider war that so many people fear?
    The President. Well, the United States has sent troops, as you know, 
to Macedonia as part of the United Nations effort to try to limit the 
scope of the Bosnian War. And we have committed to help get the U.N. 
peacekeepers out of Bosnia if the UNPROFOR mission in Bosnia collapses. 
We have done everything we could do to persuade President Tudjman not to 
suspend the U.N. mission in Croatia because we fear that it will lead to 
a wider war there. We feel a strong responsibility to our U.N. and, many 
of them our NATO allies as well, to try to help them, and we are trying 
to work through whatever plans would be appropriate to give that sort of 
assistance. But I do not foresee--I have worked very hard to avoid the 
long-term commitment of American ground troops in that region, and I 
will continue to do that.
    I think that this is something that has to be handled through the 
United Nations. I have offered NATO support, and I have been willing to 
work with our allies who were willing to put their troops on the ground 
there because they thought it was an area in which Europe ought to take 
the lead. And that's generally the system I think we should continue to 
observe.
    Yes.

Health Care Reform

    Q. Mr. President, you mentioned health care reform yesterday and 
again today as one way you could achieve deficit reduction. I wonder if 
we're going to see any concrete proposals from you in this legislative 
session on health care reform.
    The President. Yes, I think you will see concrete proposals in this 
legislative session.
    Q. From you?
    The President. From me, yes. But I want to do it insofar as I can, 
with the Congress. As I said in the State of the Union Address, I think 
last time I bit off more than I could chew. They saw that and then they 
decided to back away from their proposals and just take the political 
position they would kill anything we propose. And I think I made a 
mistake, but I think they did, too. And what I hope we ought to do now--
what I think we ought to do now, is to figure out a way to help 
Americans get more affordable health care and to solve this problem. And 
if we do it in the right way, we will continue to substantially lower 
the costs of Medicare and Medicaid in the out-years.
    Let me say something that almost nobody has noticed in this budget I 
presented, and that is that this budget reflects $94 billion less in 
health care costs over the next 5 years than last year's budget. Why? 
Because of the increasing use of managed care in the Medicare program, 
because more seniors are voluntarily going into managed care programs in 
Medicaid, and because of the general efforts in both the private and in 
the public sector to bring down health care costs. Now, the reason it 
hasn't reduced the deficit $94 billion is that interest rate increases 
have added to the cost of carrying the debt.
    But we are lowering the cost of health care from what it was when I 
took office. And we can do that some more in a responsible, fair way. 
But we've got to do that together. I mean, we just--you know the 
Congress is a Republican majority Congress; I can't pass a health care 
bill unless they want to work with me on it.
    Q. Are you saying you'll only do it with them then? I mean, are you 
inviting them to work on----
    The President. No, what I'm saying is, I've been talking to Senators 
and Congressmen--House Members--in both parties for some weeks, and I'm 
very flexible about when to put what out and all that, but the point is, 
unless we have some agreement about how we're going to proceed, we won't 
pass a bill. If we do pass a bill, we can both help to make progress on 
health care for the American people, which is a thing they really want, 
and we can lower our future costs in health care.

First Lady's Travel

    Q. Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton is about to visit a number of foreign 
countries, and I wonder, is there a diplomatic element to this at your 
behest, or what is the purpose of her visits, particularly to the South 
Asian nations?

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    The President. Well, she has been invited to go there, number one. 
And number two, I believe that the United States has given insufficient 
attention for some years now to South Asia. India has the biggest middle 
class in the world, for example. And there are two reasons for this. One 
is our historic ties to India were strained during the cold war because 
of what the geopolitics of that area did to their foreign policy. And 
secondly, there are these thorny problems between India and Pakistan 
which we have sought to help resolve through several administrations and 
without success. And it's not something that I can do right now. But we 
had a number of Cabinet members going there. She was invited, and I 
thought she ought to go. I encouraged her to go.
    The trip to Copenhagen, she was invited to speak to the 
nongovernmental organizations about issues being dealt with at 
Copenhagen that she's been involved with for 25 years, and I was very 
glad she did that.
    Wolf [Wolf Blitzer, Cable News Network].

Debate on Foreign Involvement

    Q. Mr. President, a two-part question on international issues. When 
you attack the new isolationists, specifically, who do you have in mind, 
by name? [Laughter]. And the second part of the question, as you know, 
the French Government has accused five CIA agents listed as diplomats in 
France of activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, which is 
a euphemism for espionage. Are they telling the truth? What does this 
mean?
    The President. Let me take the second question first. I believe that 
we have resolved this matter with France, and as a practical matter, I 
have followed the policy of every President not to publicly discuss 
intelligence-related questions.
    Secondly, I just got through saying, I think we're getting into too 
much name-calling in Washington, and I don't want to exacerbate that. I 
made it very clear what I said in my speech at the Nixon Center the 
other night. There are understandable tendencies all across the world--
the gentleman just asked me the question about the Russian Duma--there 
are understandable tendencies all across the world to look inward in 
these democracies and in all countries where popular pressure is saying, 
``Let's shut the world out. This is a complicated world. We don't have 
control over all this. We've got enough problems here at home. We've got 
to walk away from them.'' And they are working on people, everywhere in 
the world. They are working on people here in the United States.
    I do not want us to become either economically or politically 
isolated. That's what I mean by isolationist. Therefore, as you know, I 
believe that since we have no intention of just closing our borders--
we're getting all the downside of global trade in terms of having people 
in vulnerable jobs being dislocated. Expanding trade gives us the 
upside, gives us the chance to win, to promote democracy and stability 
abroad and to get more high-wage jobs here. I think it would be a bad 
mistake for us to restrict the power of me--this President or any future 
President in peacekeeping, in all those areas.
    So you know who's on what side on all these issues, and you know how 
I feel about it. And I don't think that us getting into name-calling 
will further that.
    Peter [Peter Maer, Westwood One] and then Anne [Anne Compton, ABC 
News].

Russia

    Q. Mr. President, returning to the issue of Russia, given the 
continued fighting in Chechnya and the apparent stall in Russian 
reforms, can you give us some measure of your confidence level in Boris 
Yeltsin or your lack of confidence? And how do you read his failure to 
conclude this situation in Chechnya?
    The President. I think it's obviously a very difficult problem for 
him. And I think that--I hesitate to comment on it in great detail 
because I'm not sure I know everything there is to know about it. We and 
every other country in the world outside Russia and all of his allies--I 
know Chancellor Kohl and many others in Europe have said, ``You ought to 
slow down the fighting. You ought to bring an end to the violence. You 
ought to bring the OSCE in there to be observers, to make sure there are 
no human rights violations, and this thing ought to be negotiated.''
    And so, the ambivalence between the military solution and the 
political solution, and

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the fact that you obviously have 1.2 million or however many there are 
of very determined people in Chechnya with a decades-long history of 
resentment against the central government makes this thing just sort of 
hanging there. It's like a thorn in their flesh.
    Now, I believe that he has made the major policy decisions there. I 
think he is in control of the policy there. And I have dealt directly 
with him in urging a change and a moderation of policy there, and I will 
continue to do that. My confidence level in him is strong. If you ask me 
do I think he is still the effective President of Russia, and is he 
making those decisions, yes, that's what I believe is the case.
    I'll take one more. Anne, and then I'll go.

1996 Election

    Q. Back on politics, you say it's too early for you to become 
consumed by reelection talk. It might not be too early for someone 
within the Democratic Party who might choose to challenge you. Do you 
expect a challenge from within your own party, and do you think that 
would be destructive for Democrats?
    The President. I don't expect it. I don't not expect it. I don't 
know what will happen. I hope there won't be one. I think it would be a 
mistake for the Democratic Party. And again, I would say what would the 
issue be? What would the issue be? The unemployment rate is lower. The 
inflation rate is lower. The growth rate is higher. The world is more 
peaceful. We have a slew of problems out there. We can stay here for 3 
or 4 hours and talk about it. There are a bunch of problems out there. 
The country is in better shape than it was 2 years ago.
    I get tickled--I laugh every time I see one of the Republican--when 
the Republicans have a big fundraiser, and they give them a bunch of 
money because a lot of them are angry that we raised income taxes on the 
top 1.2 percent of people to bring the deficit down. But I'll bet you 
almost everybody going to those fundraisers for those Republicans is 
doing better under our economic policies in the last 2 years than they 
were before.
    So my job is just to do the best job I can, reward work, support 
families and communities, offer opportunity, demand responsibility in 
these changes, and keep moving forward. That's what I'm going to do. And 
this is a difficult, tumultuous time, but this country is doing better. 
And I am determined to keep fighting for the interests and the values of 
middle-class people. And I'm going to let the election take care of 
itself, as I believe it will.
    Thank you.

Note: The President's 88th news conference began at 1 p.m. in Room 450 
of the Old Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to 
civil rights leader Jesse Jackson; Henry Foster, Surgeon General-
Designate; President Franco Tudjman of the Republic of Croatia; 
President Boris Yeltsin of Russia; and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of 
Germany.