[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 1 (Monday, January 8, 1996)]
[Pages 4-5]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Prior to a Meeting With Congressional Leaders

December 31, 1995

Budget Negotiations

    Q. Mr. President, are you close to a deal today?
    The President. Let me tell you where we are today. We had a very 
long discussion yesterday. We discussed almost all the issues where we 
had differences on our plans financially, in terms of the dollars. And 
this morning we're going to have an extensive discussion of the Medicare 
policy. And then we're going to give our staffs some instruction. We're 
going to meet again on Tuesday, and we're going to do our best to work 
through this and come to an accord.
    My New Year's wish is that we'll get this balanced budget plan, and 
we'll do it in a way that protects the things that we care about, the 
Medicare, the Medicaid, the education and environment, the other issues. 
And we've been working at it. I've been very well pleased, and I think 
we've been somewhat successful because we haven't said very much about 
it. We've just got to keep working until we reach an accord.
    Q. Mr. President, will you touch on--[inaudible]--negotiations----
    Q. Will you leave town today without reopening the Government, of 
the three----
    Speaker Gingrich. I'm sure we'll be talking about that, that's one 
of the things we

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want to get done and get agreed to. So we're trying to work out how to 
get the Federal employees back to work. We'd also like to get them paid. 
I think that's an integral part of getting them back to work. But as the 
President said, I think, frankly, most of our success so far has been 
that we've been in this room talking with each other and not getting 
involved in negotiating in public, and I think we've made a lot of 
progress.
    Q. To follow on that, sir, is it healthy to have the House Speaker 
talking on CNN yesterday on the----
    Speaker Gingrich. Oh, that is nonsense. I told the President on 
Friday that I was so favorable about him in answering their big question 
on ``Evans & Novak'' that I thought he'd want to see it. The fact is 
we're working very well together. I was asked a question about the 
campaign next year, and I suspect if you ask Mr. Gephardt or Vice 
President Gore about how they'll campaign next year, they'll give you 
similar answers. We're negotiating very well from a Government 
standpoint in here, and I think we have a lot to be proud of. Our New 
Year's wish ought to be that we get this done and give the American 
people a balanced budget and the Government paid for and back to work.
    Senator Dole. The Senate is going to meet at noon; we'll try to pass 
something to help the Federal employees.
    Q. Are you closer?
    Senator Dole. Oh, we're about 6 feet apart. [Laughter]
    Senator Daschle. We'll be a lot closer in a couple of hours. 
[Laughter]
    The President. We're working at it steady.
    Happy New Year everybody.

Note: The exchange began at 9:50 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this 
exchange.