[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 18 (Monday, May 6, 1996)]
[Pages 781-783]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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

May 2, 1996

Budget Negotiations

    The President. I'd like to make a couple of brief opening remarks, 
and then I'd like to let Senator Chafee and Senator Breaux say whatever 
they'd like to say. And then after

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the meeting, after we've had a chance to visit, I may want to say some 
other things. But I'd like to say less of and more now, and perhaps more 
afterward.
    First, I want to thank this group of Senators for coming to the 
White House. This has been a good day for our country. We've got some 
good economic news. We found that the American economy is continuing to 
grow steadily and without inflation and better than had been expected. 
But even though we have over 8 million jobs and low inflation and strong 
growth, we know that if we want to continue this we have got to finish 
the work of balancing the budget, and we have to do it in 7 years and in 
a bipartisan way.
    In a very real sense for the next several months we will have to 
face the choice in more than one area between partisanship and progress. 
But if you look at what has happened in this Congress that is really 
good, and a lot has happened that is good--the telecommunications bill, 
the antiterrorism bill, the budget bill that I signed just a few days 
ago, the lobby reform bill; in the Senate, the passage of 100 to nothing 
of the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill, and then the passage, I think 97 to 3, 
just before you came over here, of the immigration bill sponsored by 
Senator Simpson--in every case these things have happened because there 
was bipartisan cooperation, the people put the interest of the country 
first.
    That is what works. And that is what we're going to have to do to 
with this budget. So I'm proud to be here with these Senators today. I 
commend them for what they are doing. I hope it will become the model 
for what Congress does on this, and I hope it will bring us to a 
genuinely bipartisan balanced budget. And I'm encouraged, and I'm 
anxious to get down to the discussion.
    Senator Chafee?
    Senator Chafee. Well, thank you first, Mr. President. Thank you very 
much for inviting us down. We appreciate that. This whole group--Senator 
Dole has invited us to meet with him in a similar fashion next Tuesday, 
and we all intend to do that, likewise. This is truly a bipartisan 
group, as you have mentioned.
    We are brought together by a desire to get a balanced budget, not 
just in the 7th year, but in the out-years likewise. And we feel very 
strong. This is not a negotiating group. We're not negotiators on behalf 
of anybody in the Congress. We have come up with a plan, a bipartisan 
plan, which we've arrived at after considerable effort, and I want to 
commend Senator Breaux and all who are associated with him. We think 
there's a very, very fair budget proposal that we've worked out. And we 
commend it to you, and we'll have a chance to present it in greater 
detail as we proceed.
    Senator Breaux. Mr. President, we're delighted to be here at your 
invitation to meet with you and to present what I think is very unique. 
This is truly a very unique coalition of 11 Democrats working together 
with 11 Republicans who have come together to present to you and to the 
administration and to our colleagues a 7-year balanced budget which 
brings about real reform in areas of welfare and Medicaid and Medicare, 
as well as a tax cut for individuals and working families.
    We think that working from the center out is the way to solve these 
problems. We've had 2 Government partial shutdowns last year and 13 
continuing resolutions. That's not the way to balance the budget. We 
offer this as a hopeful suggestion as the way we should go about getting 
it down.
    The President. Thank you very much.
    Q. Senators Breaux and Chafee, will you have a cut in the gas tax as 
a part of your plan to balance the budget?
    Senator Breaux. That's not part of our plan.
    Senator Chafee. That's not part of this plan.
    Q. Any tax cuts at all as part of this----
    Senator Chafee. Yes, we have a tax cut proposal in our plan.
    Q. Can you tell us more about the Medicare and welfare proposals?
    Senator Chafee. Well, I don't think we want to get into this in 
piecemeal.
    The President. We'll all have more to say. We want to talk first.

Note: The President spoke at 3:40 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.

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