[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 49 (Monday, December 13, 1999)]
[Pages 2537-2551]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's News Conference

December 8, 1999

    The President. Good afternoon. Before I take your questions I have a 
statement to

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make. We are at a pivotal moment in the Middle East peace process, one 
that can shape the face of the region for generations to come. As I have 
said on numerous occasions, history will not forgive a failure to seize 
this opportunity to achieve a comprehensive peace.
    We've made good progress on the Palestinian track, and I'm 
determined to help Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat move forward 
in accordance with their very ambitious timetable.
    We've also been working intensely, for months, for a resumption of 
negotiations between Israel and Syria. Today I am pleased to announce 
that Prime Minister Barak and President Asad have agreed that the 
Israel-Syrian peace negotiations will be resumed from the point where 
they left off. The talks will be launched here in Washington next week 
with Prime Minister Barak and Foreign Minister Shara.
    After an initial round for 1 or 2 days, they will return to the 
region, and intensive negotiations will resume at a site to be 
determined soon thereafter. These negotiations will be high level, 
comprehensive, and conducted with the aim of reaching an agreement as 
soon as possible.
    Israelis and Syrians still need to make courageous decisions in 
order to reach a just and lasting peace. But today's step is a 
significant breakthrough, for it will allow them to deal with each other 
face to face, and that is the only way to get there.
    I want to thank Prime Minister Barak and President Asad for their 
willingness to take this important step. And I want to thank Secretary 
Albright who has worked very hard on this and, as you know, has been in 
the region and meeting with the leaders as we have come to this 
conclusion.
    Before us is a task as clear as it is challenging. As I told Prime 
Minister Barak and President Asad in phone conversations with them 
earlier today, they now bear a heavy responsibility of bringing peace to 
the Israeli and Syrian people.
    On the Palestinian track, Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat 
are committed to a rapid timetable: a framework agreement by mid-
February, a permanent status agreement by mid-September. I'm convinced 
it is possible to achieve that goal, to put an end to generations of 
conflict, to realize the aspirations of both the Israeli and the 
Palestinian people. And I will do everything I can to help them in that 
historic endeavor.
    It is my hope that with the resumption of Israeli-Syrian talks, 
negotiations between Israel and Lebanon also will soon begin.
    There can be no illusion here. On all tracks, the road ahead will be 
arduous; the task of negotiating agreements will be difficult. Success 
is not inevitable. Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese will 
have to confront fateful questions. They face hard choices. They will 
have to stand firmly against all those who seek to derail the peace, and 
sadly, there are still too many of them.
    But let there also be no misunderstanding. We have a truly historic 
opportunity now. With a comprehensive peace, Israel will live in a safe, 
secure, and recognized border for the first time in its history. The 
Palestinian people will be able to forge their own destiny on their own 
land. Syrians and Lebanese will fulfill their aspirations and enjoy the 
full fruits of peace. And throughout the region, people will be able to 
build more peaceful and, clearly, more prosperous lives.
    As I have said, and I say one more time, I will spare neither time 
nor effort in pursuit of that goal. Today the parties have given us 
clear indication that they, too, are willing to take that path. Peace 
has long been within our sight. Today it is within our grasp, and we 
must seize it.
    Thank you very much.
    Terry [Terence Hunt, Associated Press].

Elian Gonzalez

    Q. Mr. President, on another matter involving a foreign government, 
as a father, do you sympathize with the demand of Elian Gonzalez for the 
return of his 6-year-old son to Cuba, now that the boy's mother and 
stepfather were drowned in a boating accident on the way to Florida?
    The President. Well, I think, of course, all fathers would be 
sympathetic. The question is, and I think the most important thing is, 
what would be best for the child? And there is a legal process for 
determining that.
    I personally don't think that any of us should have any concern 
other than that, that

[[Page 2539]]

the law be followed. I don't think that politics or threats should have 
anything to do with it, and if I have my way, it won't. We should let 
the people who are responsible for this, who have a legal 
responsibility, try to do the right thing by the child.
    These decisions are often difficult, even in domestic situations, 
but I hope that is what would be done, and it should be done without 
regard to politics.
    Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International].

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, did both sides make a lot of concessions to get to 
this breakthrough point? And also, are you aware that Amnesty 
International says that Israel is continuing the demolition of 
Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem and on the West Bank, and also, the 
expansion of the settlements? Are all these part of a package?
    The President. Well, Prime Minister Barak made a very important 
statement about settlements yesterday, which I think was quite welcome. 
And it's a good first step. As you know, we believe that nothing should 
be done which makes it more difficult to make peace or which prejudges 
the final outcome. But I do think that the statement yesterday is a step 
in the right direction.
    As to your question about Syria, I think it's very important at this 
point that we maximize the chances for success, which means it would not 
be useful for me to get into the details. But the negotiations are 
resuming on the basis of all previous negotiations between the United 
States and Syria--I mean, between Syria and Israel, and with the United 
States.
    I think it is clear that both parties have sufficient confidence 
that their needs can be met through negotiations, or they would not have 
reached this agreement today.
    Steve [Steve Holland, Reuters].

Russia and the Situation in Chechnya

    Q. On Chechnya, you used sanctions to punish Yugoslavia and 
Indonesia for repression; why aren't sanctions being considered against 
Russia?
    The President. Well, there are two categories of aid here in 
question--or, at least--let's talk about the aid. A sanctions regime has 
to be imposed by the United Nations, and Russia has a veto there. But 
I'm not sure that would be in our interest or in the interest of the 
ultimate resolution of the crisis.
    Let me just say, with regard to the aid, because I've been asked 
about that, I think it's important to point out to the American people 
that two-thirds of the aid that we spend in Russia is involved in 
denuclearization and safeguarding nuclear materials. And I think it is 
plain that we have an interest in continuing that.
    The other third goes to fund democracy, the things that we Americans 
believe would lead to better decisions. It goes to an independent media; 
it goes to student exchanges; it goes to NGO's, helping people set up 
small businesses. I don't think our interests would be furthered by 
terminating that. And as of now, there is no pending IMF transfer 
because of the general opinion by the IMF that not all the economic 
conditions have been met. So that's a bridge we'll have to cross when we 
get there.
    Yes.

Middle East Peace Process

    Q. Mr. President, when Israel and Syria do sit down, they obviously 
are going to have to confront the issue of the Golan Heights almost 
immediately. How are they going to resolve that? What will the U.S. role 
be? Will you see the administration--Secretary Albright, yourself 
possibly--being a mediator? And finally, why isn't President Asad 
sitting down with Prime Minister Barak at this point?
    The President. I think they're sitting down because they want to 
make peace, and they have now concluded that they can do it on terms and 
that will meet both their interests. You've asked good questions, but 
any answer I give would make it unlikely that they would be successfully 
resolved. Frankly, we all took a blood oath that we wouldn't talk beyond 
our points today, and I'm going to keep my word.
    Q. Sir, maybe you misunderstood. I was asking why President Asad is 
not personally involved in the talks at this point.
    The President. Oh, he is very personally involved. I think that--I 
believe that he felt

[[Page 2540]]

it was better--and maybe you should ask the Syrians this--but let me 
just say, he is very personally involved in this. I think he thinks it 
better, for whatever reason, he's made the decision that Foreign 
Minister Shara, who, thankfully, has recovered from his recent stroke 
and is perfectly able to come here, to do so. And I'm quite comfortable 
that this is as close to a person-to-person talk that they could have 
without doing it.
    Yes, go ahead.

Elian Gonzalez/Situation in Chechnya

    Q. Mr. President, can I follow up about Cuba and Chechnya? With 
regard to Cuba, you said that politics ought to stay out of this 
decision regarding the boy. Are you saying, sir, that you can envision a 
circumstance where, in your mind, it would be appropriate to return this 
young boy to Communist Cuba?
    Second question, regarding Chechnya: Given the fact that two-thirds 
of the aid goes to denuclearization, a third to democracy effects, do 
you envision no circumstances, sir, under which the United States would 
cut off that aid? And how does that square with your statement that 
Russia will pay a heavy price for its war against Chechnya?
    The President. Okay, the first question first. I do not know enough 
about the facts, so you can draw no inferences to what I might or might 
not do because it's not a decision for me to make. There is a law here. 
There are people charged with making the decisions. I think they ought 
to do their best within the parameters of the law; do what seems to be 
best for the child.
    That is all I have to say, and you shouldn't read anything into it. 
I don't know enough about the case, and I don't think that any of us 
should interfere with what is going to be a difficult enough decision as 
it is.
    Now on Russia, I have stated what my present view is, and that is 
all I have done. I think Russia is already paying a heavy price. I think 
they'll pay a heavy price in two ways. First of all, I don't think the 
strategy will work. As I said, I have no sympathy for the Chechen 
rebels; I have no sympathy for the invasion of Dagestan; and I have no 
sympathy for terrorist acts in Moscow; and none of us should have. But 
the people of Chechnya should not be punished for what the rebels did. 
They don't represent the established government of Chechnya. They don't 
represent a majority of the people there. And the strategy, it seems to 
me, is more likely to hurt ordinary citizens than the legitimate targets 
of the wrath of the Russian Government.
    So I think that--first of all, I think the policy will not work, and 
therefore, it will be very costly, just like it was before when it 
didn't work. Secondly, the continuation of it and that amassing of 
hundreds of thousands of refugees, which will have to be cared for by 
the international community--we've already set aside, I think, at least 
$10 million to try to make our contributions for it--will further 
alienate the global community from Russia. And that's a bad thing, 
because they need support not just from the IMF and the World Bank, they 
need investors. They need people to have confidence in what they're 
doing.
    They're about to have elections. And so there will be a heavy price 
there. And I don't think there's any question about that.
    I think it's already--yes, go ahead.

Elian Gonzalez

    Q. Sir, regarding the Cuban boy, you say you don't know enough about 
the facts. A lot of people in South Africa think the facts are pretty 
simple. They say that even though the boy's father's in Cuba, this boy 
would be better off growing up in the United States than in Cuba under 
Castro. What would you say to those people?
    The President. Well, I think the decisionmakers will take into 
account all the relevant facts. But I don't think I should make the 
decision. First of all, I can't make the decision under the law. And I 
don't think I should tell them how to make the decision because I don't 
know enough about the facts. I believe they will do their best to make 
the right decision.
    Q. What about growing up in Cuba as opposed to growing up in the 
United States?
    The President. Well, of course, I'd rather grow up in the United 
States. But there may be other considerations there, and one was asked 
in the previous question about it. So we'll just have to evaluate it.

[[Page 2541]]

    You know, there are times in the United States when judges have to 
make decisions--the legal standard governing domestic cases is the best 
interest of the child--there's a slightly different characterization, I 
think, of what will determine the international decision here. This is, 
you know, an unusual case for us. But even here, sometimes it's very 
hard to say. You know, will children be better off with their parents in 
America? Almost always, but not always.
    So you just can't--I don't think--I can't serve any useful purpose 
by commenting on it, because I don't know enough about the facts of the 
family life or even the governing law on this. I just know that I think 
we ought to let the people make the decision, urge them to do their best 
to do what's best for the child, and try to take as much political steam 
out of it as possible so that the little child can be considered.
    Yes.

Federal Action Against Gun Manufacturers

    Q. Sir, on another legal matter, your threat of a class-action 
against gun manufacturers, is this an attempt, sir, through either 
coercion or, ultimately, the judicial branch, to get accomplished what 
you couldn't get accomplished through legislation? And with the 
difficulties that you've had recently getting some of your initiatives 
passed in Congress, as you head into this last year of your Presidency, 
is this the hint of a new tactic to get those initiatives passed, when 
you can't get them through Congress?
    The President. Let's talk about the gun suit first, and then I'll 
respond to the general question. The litigation, which is being 
initiated by public housing authorities, has a good grounding in fact. 
There are 10,000 gun crimes every year in the largest public housing 
authorities. Now, they spend a billion dollars on security. And I think 
it's important that the American people know they're not asking for 
money from the gun manufacturers; they are seeking a remedy to try to 
help solve the problem.
    They want, first of all, more care from the manufacturers and the 
dealers with whom they deal. Senator Schumer released a study, you may 
remember, that said that one percent of the gun dealers sell 50 percent 
of the guns involved in gun crimes. Now, if that study is accurate--and 
he believes it is--that is a stunning fact. And there ought to be 
something done about that. And if there is a way that the court could 
craft a resolution of that, that would be a good thing, I think. The 
second thing we want to do is to stop irresponsible marketing practices. 
You all remember that one company advertised an assault weapon by saying 
that it was hard to get fingerprints from. You know, you don't have to 
be all broke out with brilliance to figure out what the message is 
there. And the third thing they want is some safety design changes.
    Now, let me hasten to say that we have a lot of gun manufacturers in 
this country who have been, I think, immensely responsible. You'll 
remember the majority of the gun manufacturers signed on to our proposal 
for child trigger locks. I still would like legislation to cover them 
all. But this should not be viewed--if you look at the nature of the 
release, they're not trying to bankrupt any companies; they're trying to 
make their living spaces safer. And I think it's a legitimate thing.
    Now to your general question, I think if you go back over the whole 
reach of our tenure here, I have always tried to use the executive 
authority in areas where I thought it was important. We're doing it on 
medical privacy. We're doing it on--yesterday we had the press 
conference on prevention of medical errors. We're doing it with the paid 
family leave initiative we offered to the States. We did it when we set 
aside the roadless areas in the forests. So I think this is an 
appropriate thing to do.
    But I would also remind you at the end of this legislative session 
from the Congress, we got 100,000 teachers, 50,000 police, 60,000 
housing vouchers to help people move from welfare to work. We passed the 
Kennedy-Jeffords bill to allow people with disabilities to move into the 
workplace and keep their medical care from the Government. We passed the 
Financial Modernization Act, which will dramatically, I think, improve 
financial services, grow the economy. And we've protected the Community 
Reinvestment Act. We doubled funds for after-

[[Page 2542]]

school programs. We provided, for the very first time ever, funds to 
help school districts turn around failing schools or shut them down.
    So I'm continuing to work with Congress, and I will do so 
vigorously. But I think this was an appropriate thing to do on the 
merits.
    Yes.

Seattle Round

    Q. Mr. President, some of your critics have suggested that the 
reason that you pressed the issues of the environment and labor at the 
WTO meeting in Seattle is to benefit the Presidential candidacy of Vice 
President Gore, knowing that there might be a backlash from the 
developing nations. How do you respond to that?
    The President. That's wrong. And I would like to make two comments, 
one on the WTO ministerial meeting and, secondly, on that general issue.
    The Uruguay Round was launched in 1986. The trade ministers started 
trying to launch it in 1982. It took them 4 years to get it off the 
ground. The fundamental reason a new round was not launched here had, in 
my judgment, very little to do with my philosophy of trade, which I'll 
talk about in a moment. There were--the big blocks here were the 
Europeans and the Japanese, on the one hand--the United States and the 
developing nations, we all had positions that couldn't be reconciled. 
The Europeans were not prepared at this time to change their common 
agricultural policy, which accounts for 85 percent of the export 
subsidies in the world. The Japanese had their own agricultural and 
other issues to deal with.
    The United States was not prepared to change its policy on dumping, 
because--and I think the recent Asian financial crisis justifies that, I 
might add. Even though we did finally move under our dumping laws, and 
we had to move, to try to keep our steel industry, which took down 60 
percent of its employment and modernized during the eighties and the 
early nineties, we still bought 10 times as much steel during that 
crisis as the Europeans did. The recent WTO agreement we made with China 
protects us from surges and unfair dumping. We have the largest trade 
deficit in the world. Now, we get a lot of good out of it: We get low 
inflation; we get goods from all over the world. But there has to be 
some sense of fairness and balance here.
    And the developing nations, for their part, felt that they had not 
yet gotten enough benefits from the last trade round and the entry into 
the WTO. They think that we and everybody else--the Europeans, the 
Japanese, everybody--they think we ought to have more open markets for 
agricultural products, which doesn't affect America so much, and for 
textiles, which does affect us. That's the big issue being negotiated 
still with the Caribbean Basin and the Africa trade initiative.
    So it's very important that you understand that there were real 
differences that we thought we could bridge, unrelated to labor and the 
environment, which we couldn't and which I think would have been clearer 
but for the backdrop of the demonstrations in Seattle over these other 
issues.
    Now, to your second question. When I ran for President in 1992 and 
the big issue being debated was NAFTA, I said that I wanted to be for 
NAFTA, I would fight hard for it, but I felt strongly there ought to be 
provisions on labor and the environment in the agreement, and those 
provisions were included. I have always had what I guess you would call 
a Third Way position on trade. I think the position of Americans, 
including some in my party, that trade is bad for America and bad for 
the world is just dead wrong.
    I think that the world is more prosperous, and I know America is 
more prosperous because of the continuing integration of the world's 
economy and the mutual interdependence of people and people being able 
to produce what they produce best in a competitive environment, 
including costs. And I think we benefit, not just from our exports but 
from the imports. That's what I believe. I believe we will have both a 
more prosperous and a more peaceful world if we have more of the right 
kind of globalization.
    I read--one of the many, many articles that's been written in the 
last several days in the aftermath of Seattle pointed out that many of 
the world's most troubled places, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Africa, to 
some extent the Middle East, suffer because they

[[Page 2543]]

have too little economic interconnection with the rest of the world.
    I believe, even though I'm proud of the role that we've played and 
especially proud of the role George Mitchell played in the Irish peace 
settlement, I think it is unlikely that we would have done that if, 
also, Ireland didn't have the fastest growing economy in Europe and 
Northern Ireland weren't growing and people didn't imagine that they 
could have a totally different life if they just let go of what they've 
been fighting over.
    So the people who don't believe that trade is good, I just think 
they're wrong. Now having said that, I think that as the world grows 
more interdependent, it is unrealistic to think that there will be an 
international economic policy with rules unrelated to an emerging 
international consensus on the environment and an international 
consensus on labor. That does not mean that I would cut off our markets 
to India and Pakistan, for example, if they didn't raise their wages to 
American levels. I know that's what the sort of stated fear was. I never 
said that, I don't believe that.
    But I think that--let me give you an analogy. Several years ago, the 
Europeans did this, and I applaud them: They were actually the impetus 
for protecting intellectual property more than the United States was. 
And people debated that for years. Why, intellectual property has no 
place in trade bills. Who cares if people are pirating books and selling 
them for 60 cents apiece when they cost $20 somewhere else? And now, we 
just take it as a given. And it's a good thing for the United States.
    You think about all the software we're exporting, all the CD's we're 
exporting, all the things--intellectual property is a big deal to us 
now. It was just as alien a subject a few years ago to trade talks as 
questions of labor and the environment are today.
    So I think I've got a good position here. It has nothing to do with 
this campaign. It's a position I've had for years. And I believe the 
world will slowly come to it. We do have to be sensitive to the 
developing countries. We cannot say that, you know, you're out of here 
because you can't have the same labor environment we do. But we also 
have to--all we ask for was to start a dialog within the WTO on trade 
issues. On the environment, all we ask is, is that the decisionmaking 
process not degrade the environment when countries have environmental 
policies and interests, and just blithely override them because there's 
an immediate, short-term economic benefit.
    I think that's right. And I believe that 10 years from now, somebody 
will be sitting here, and we'll all take it for granted that we've come 
a long way in integrating trade and the environment--I mean, trade and 
labor. That's what I think, and that's what I believe.

Man of the Century

    Q. Mr. President, I'm afraid this is in the pop-quiz category of 
questions, but I'll try to make it easy for you. Every year, this time 
of year, we pick a Man of the Year. Maybe one day it will be Person of 
the Year. I'd like to know what your pick of the Man
of the Century would be--and note that
I'm  not  asking  you  for  the  millennium. [Laughter]
    The President. Well, if it were for the millennium, it might be 
someone different. Well, this century produced a lot of great men and 
women. But as an American, I would have to choose Franklin Roosevelt, 
because in this century our greatest peril was in the Depression and 
World War II and because he led us not only through those things and 
laid the building blocks for a better society with things like Social 
Security and unemployment insurance, which was, interestingly enough, 
first recommended by his cousin Theodore Roosevelt when he was 
President, but he also looked to the future, endorsing the United 
Nations and a lot of the other international institutions which were 
subsequently created under President Truman.
    Finally, I think Roosevelt was an example to Americans of the 
importance of not giving up and of the dignity inherent in every person. 
And when Franklin Roosevelt was first elected, Oliver Wendell Holmes was 
still in the Supreme Court; he was 92 years old. And President Roosevelt 
was taken to see Oliver Wendell Holmes who was still reading Plato in 
his nineties and all that. Holmes was a pretty acerbic fellow when he 
said, after meeting Roosevelt, that he thought he might

[[Page 2544]]

not have had a first-class mind, but he certainly had a first-class 
temperament.
    And he did. He understood that reality is more than the facts before 
you; it's also how you feel about them, how you react to them, what your 
attitude is. That was the advice that--``only thing we have to fear was 
fear itself '' was much more than just a slogan to him. He had lived it 
before he asked the American people to live it.
    So for all those reasons, if I had to pick one person, I would pick 
him.
    Yes, sir.

Colombia and Venezuela

    Q. Mr. President, I'd like to ask you two questions on two very 
important South American countries that are vital to U.S. foreign 
policy, Colombia and Venezuela.
    First of all, on Colombia, sir. President Pastrana has been 
extraditing people, and they're still waiting for the help that he is 
expecting from the United States. Will you fight, will you go to the mat 
for this, starting in the year 2000, for President Pastrana? That's the 
first question.
    The second question----
    The President. You're all asking two questions. That's pretty 
impressive. [Laughter]
    Q. We're just following the others.
    You met President-elect Chavez when he first came to Washington, and 
then you met him as President in New York. He will be--Venezuela will be 
holding a very unique plebiscite a week from today, which has polarized 
the country. Some people that back President Chavez thinks it's great; 
others think it will cause damage to democracy. I'd like your opinion on 
both subjects, sir.
    The President. My opinion on the second question is that I'm not a 
citizen of Venezuela, and I think that they ought to make their own 
decisions. But I'm glad that they're getting to vote on it.
    My opinion on the first question is, I should point out--remember 
now, Colombia is already the third biggest recipient of American aid. 
But I do think we should do more. And President Pastrana has, number 
one, extradited drug criminals to this country, which is important; 
number two, is facing a terribly difficult situation where he has both a 
longstanding civil insurgency in Colombia and all the problems of the 
drug cartels and the possible interrelation of the two. It's a terrible 
situation.
    Colombia is a very large country. They've been our ally for a long 
time. They had a long period of steady economic growth. They have 
suffered terribly in the last couple of years. And I think we should do 
more.
    I had a talk with Speaker Hastert about it, who is also, by the way, 
very interested in this, when we were together in Chicago recently. And 
I hope that early next year, we will have a proposal to provide further 
assistance to Colombia that will be substantial, effective, and have 
broad bipartisan support. That is my goal.
    Ken [Ken Walsh, U.S. News & World Report].

Vice President Al Gore

    Q. Vice President Gore has made a point of saying that his candidacy 
for President now will take precedence over his duties and activities as 
Vice President. I wonder, how has his role diminished in your 
administration, and how much has he missed? And does a diminished role 
by a Vice President in your administration hamper what you're trying to 
do in any way?
    The President. Well, obviously, he's not around as much. We don't 
have lunch every week, and I miss that terribly. But he was there all 
day today. He had the meeting with President Kuchma. He knows that the 
future of Ukraine is very important to our interests and to what we're 
trying to accomplish in that part of the world. And he came to our 
meeting this morning, and then, after our meeting was over, he ran a 
whole series of meetings for several hours after that. So in his 
critical functions, he's still performing them.
    And I would say, first of all, I strongly support what he's doing. I 
think he has the right to run. I'm glad he's running, and you know I 
think he'd be a great President. But he--even having said that, whenever 
there's an important decision in an area that he's been very active in, 
I always call him; we still talk about it. And his role is probably 
still larger than that of any previous Vice President, even though he's 
out campaigning. But it's

[[Page 2545]]

just less than it used to be, because he's not here all the time.
    But I have no criticism of it. I think he's doing what he ought to 
be doing, and I think it's in the best interests of the country for him 
to do it.
    Mara [Mara Liasson, National Public Radio].

Accomplishments and Disappointments of 1999

    Q. You're ending a tumultuous year that began with impeachment and 
closed with tear gas in Seattle. Could you tell us what you're proudest 
of this year, and what events or accomplishments of yours that you're 
the least proud of?
    The President. Well, I'm very happy--what I'm proudest of is that it 
turned out to be a very productive year. If you look at--I'll just 
mention them again. I did before, but we wound up--after a year in which 
almost nothing was accomplished in the Congress, we wound up with a 
recommitment to the 100,000 teachers, to the 50,000 police. We passed 
the financial modernization bill. We passed an historic 60,000 housing 
vouchers to new people from welfare to work. We passed the bill to give 
disabled people the right to take health care into the workplace. We 
doubled after-school funding. We passed this fund that I've been pushing 
hard for, for a long time, to help the States turn around or shut down 
failing schools. We had quite a lot of accomplishments.
    On the foreign front, we had the China-WTO agreement; progress with 
the Middle East peace; the Northern Ireland peace agreement; Kosovo, 
which I am very, very proud of. I still believe our country did the 
right thing there. And we've got talks starting on Cyprus now. We've got 
a Caspian pipeline agreement, which I believe 30 years from now you'll 
all look back on that as one of the most important things that happened 
this year. We had the Conventional Forces in Europe agreement with 
Russia, which will result in the removal of their forces from Georgia 
and Muldova. We had the debt relief for the poorest countries in the 
world, something I'm immensely proud of and deeply committed to. We made 
a big dent in our U.N. arrears issue. And we have worked with North 
Korea to end their missile program. So I'm very proud of what happened 
this year.
    What I'm most disappointed in is what still got left on the table. 
I'm terribly disappointed that we still haven't passed a Patients' Bill 
of Rights, that we still haven't raised the minimum wage, that we still 
haven't passed hate crimes legislation, that we still didn't pass that 
commonsense gun legislation, which was crying out for action after what 
happened at Columbine--and we had another school incident this week. I 
am disappointed that we didn't pass the school construction bill. I'm 
hoping we will pass the new markets initiative next year. If we don't do 
something now to bring economic opportunity to the areas of this country 
which have been left behind, we will never forgive ourselves. And I'm 
profoundly disappointed that we still haven't done anything to take the 
life of Social Security out beyond the baby boom generation and extend 
the life of Medicare and add a prescription drug benefit.
    So my only disappointments are what we didn't get done. But I'm 
gratified by what was accomplished.
    Q. Do you blame yourself for that, that you didn't put forward a 
plan on Social Security, to make it more substantive? Is there something 
you're--[inaudible]----
    The President. No, I gave them--first of all, I asked them--there's 
no point in putting forward--look, I tried it the other way with health 
care. I put forward a plan. And everybody said, you put forward--I 
remember Senator Dole saying, ``You put forward your plan, then I'll put 
forward my plan. We'll get together. We'll agree, and we'll pass a 
plan.'' And so, you know, I've had experience with that. That didn't 
work out too well.
    So I had all these meetings on Social Security. You remember, I 
worked very hard on it, and I asked if we could get together and work 
out something. I still haven't given up on that, by the way. And I know 
the conventional wisdom is that these things are less likely to be done 
in election years, but in some ways they may be more likely.
    And I did give them a plan which, if they had embraced it--which 
would simply require them not only to save the Social Security surplus 
but to take the interest savings

[[Page 2546]]

from paying down the debt, with the Social Security surplus, and if you 
just put that back into Social Security, you could take Social Security 
out beyond the life of the baby boom generation. And I offered to do 
more with them.
    But in order to pass something like that, we've got to have a 
bipartisan process. And I will do whatever it takes to get that done. 
But I worked as hard as I could this year to keep working in a very open 
and collegial spirit with not only the Democrats, without whom I 
wouldn't have passed any of those things I just mentioned--and all of 
you know that; they hung in there at the end; we got those things done--
but also with the Republicans, with whom I began to have, I think, some 
real progress there along toward the end of the legislative session. And 
I hope we will continue it.
    Yes, go ahead.

Russia and the Situation in Chechnya

    Q. Mr. President, on Chechnya, it seems as though the Russians don't 
feel they will pay a heavy price, and perhaps they don't care. I'm 
wondering if between now and Saturday's deadline you plan to try to 
directly contact President Yeltsin to once again convey your feelings on 
this matter.
    The President. Well, I haven't decided what else I can do. I do 
think--first of all, they may believe that because of their position in 
the United Nations and because no one wants them to fail and have more 
problems than they've got, that they can do this. But most of life's 
greatest wounds for individuals and for countries are self-inflicted. 
They're not inflicted by other people.
    And I will say again, the greatest problems that the Russians will 
have over Chechnya are--one is, I don't think the strategy will work. I 
have never said they weren't right to want to do something with the 
Chechen rebels. But I don't think the strategy will work, and therefore, 
it will be expensive, costly, and politically damaging, internally, to 
them.
    Secondly, it will affect the attitude of the international community 
over a period of time in ways that are somewhat predictable and in some 
ways unpredictable, and that is a very heavy price to pay, because it 
works better when everybody's pulling for Russia. It's a great country, 
and they have all these resources and talented, educated people, and 
they need to--and yet, they've got a declining life expectancy as well 
as all these economic problems. And I think it's a bad thing for this to 
be the number one issue both inside the country and in our relationships 
with them. So I do think it's going to be a very costly thing.
    Yes.

Panama Canal/China and Taiwan

    Q. Mr. President, with China building a second short-range missile 
base, allowing them to take Taiwan with little or no warning, are you 
concerned about America's ability to defend that island, especially with 
a Chinese company taking over the Panama Canal's ports at the end of 
this month?
    The President. Well, let's talk about the Panama Canal, and then 
I'll come back to Taiwan. And to be fair, I think I may have misstated 
this earlier. It's important for the American people to understand that 
the canal, itself, will be operated and controlled entirely by the 
Government of Panama, through the Panama Canal Authority. That is the 
locks, ingress and egress, access, openness--the canal is completely and 
totally within the control of the Panamanians.
    Now, the Hong Kong company which got the concession to operate the 
ports will be responsible for loading and unloading ships. They also do 
this in three or four ports in Great Britain. It's one of the biggest 
companies in the world that does this. The managing director is British. 
Most of the employees will be Panamanian. So I feel comfortable that our 
commercial and security interests can be protected under this 
arrangement. That's the first question.
    Now, the second question is, China is modernizing its military in a 
lot of ways. But our policy on China is crystal clear: We believe there 
is one China. We think it has to be resolved through cross-strait 
dialog, and we oppose and would view with grave concern any kind of 
violent action. And that hasn't changed.
    There has been a lot of buildup of tension on both sides that I 
think is unnecessary and counterproductive. If you look at the amount

[[Page 2547]]

of Taiwanese investment in China, for example--that goes back to my 
Irish example--if you look at the Taiwanese investment in China, it's 
obvious that eventually they're going to get this worked out because 
they're too interconnected by ties of family and, increasingly, by ties 
of the economy, and the politics of neither place should lead either 
side into doing something rash. And I hope that this will not happen. 
But our policy is clear and you know what I've done in the past. And I 
think that's all I should say about it right now.
    Yes.

Hillary Clinton's Senatorial Campaign

    Q. There is some confusion in people's minds about the First Lady's 
plans for the coming year. She has referred to the new house in New York 
as ``my house'' and indicated she plans to make that her primary 
residence. I'm wondering if you could tell us how much time you think 
the two of you will be apart in the coming year and how you feel about 
this arrangement?
    The President. Well, first of all, I am happy for her, for the 
decision that she made. She was encouraged to run by many people, and 
she decided she wanted to do it. And if she's going to do it, she's got 
to spend a long time in New York. So she'll be there a lot. She'll be 
here when she can. I'll go up there when I can, and we'll be together as 
much as we can. We always make it a habit to talk at least once, if not 
more, every day. It's not the best arrangement in the world, but it's 
something that we can live with for a year. I love the house. We picked 
it out, and we like it, and I'm looking forward to living there when I 
leave here.
    But I've got a job to do, and she now has a campaign to run, and so 
we'll have to be apart more than I wish we were. But it's not a big 
problem. She'll be here quite a lot, and I'll go up there when I can, 
and we'll manage it, and I think it will come out just fine. I'm very 
happy for her.
    Wendell [Wendell Goler, Fox News Channel].

Responsibility for Impeachment

    Q. Mr. President, just a couple of minutes ago you said that most of 
life's greatest wounds are self-inflicted. If I can paraphrase a recent 
request by Ken Starr, sir, I wonder if now you can tell us how much of 
the pain you went through last year was self-inflicted and how much due 
to excesses by other people, political and Mr. Starr's excesses himself, 
sir?
    The President. The mistake I made was self-inflicted, and the 
misconduct of others was not.
    Yes.

Golden Parachutes

    Q. Mr. President, in the case of--on the subject of corporate golden 
and platinum parachutes, particularly in the case of mergers and change 
of controlled packages, tens of millions, and more in most cases, are 
awarded to corporate officers. Directors just rubberstamp most of these 
sales to the detriment of other stockholders.
    The President. What's the question?
    Q. I'd like to know, what can and will the administration do to put 
a ceiling on this acrimonious alimony?
    The President. Well, first of all, unless it's an abuse of the 
stockholders--and if it is, then we have Federal agencies which have 
jurisdiction over it--there's nothing we can do. We have made some 
changes in the tax laws--we did back in '93--that I thought were 
appropriate. But I don't think beyond that there's anything else we can 
do.
    April [April Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks], and then John 
[John M. Broder, New York Times]. Go ahead. No, April--I'll call on all 
of you, but April first.
    Q. Okay.
    The President. April first. [Laughter] That's the way I feel up here 
sometimes. [Laughter]
    Q. It should be that way, though.
[Laughter]

Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Differences

    Mr. President, America is ending the century with resurfacing scars 
of racism. And where does the issue of race, in terms of your agenda for 
2000, stand? And are you still prepared to release your book on race by 
the end of your term? And what do you think about the comments that 
there's internal fighting over this book in the White House?

[[Page 2548]]

    The President. There really isn't much. I have a draft now, and I'm 
working on it. And I do plan to release it. And it will stay at the 
center of my concerns not only now but after I leave the White House.
    I think that after the cold war and with the sort of end of the 
ideological battles, you've seen, I think that the biggest problem the 
world faces today is the conflict people have over their racial and 
ethnic and their related religious differences. And I plan to be heavily 
involved in it at home and around the world for the rest of my life.
    Q. When do you think the book will come out, though?
    The President. I don't know. I've got a day job, you know, and I'm 
not going to--I've got a library full of books on race, and almost all 
of them are quite good. But I don't want to put it out unless I think it 
could make a difference, even if it just says what other people have 
said, somehow it can make a difference. And I'm trying to make sure how 
it ought to be done. I don't want to just put it out because I said I 
would put it out; I want to make sure when I do it, it at least achieves 
the objectives I'm trying to achieve.
    John.

Health Care Coverage

    Q. Mr. President, the number of Americans who are not covered by 
health insurance has increased since you took office by about 7 million. 
Do you agree with Vice President Gore that Senator Bradley's plan for 
covering most of those people is irresponsible and unaffordable, even 
though we're enjoying the healthiest economy in decades?
    The President. First of all, I'm not going to get in the middle of 
the Gore-Bradley campaign--I know you want me to, but I'm not going to 
do that for you--[laughter]--because I want you to write about Syria and 
Israel tomorrow.
    Let me say, first of all, Hillary and I said when the health care 
plan went down that the number of people uninsured would go up. And you 
would all draw the same conclusion. You would have drawn the same 
conclusion back then if you spent as many years and as much time 
studying it as we have.
    So what happened is exactly what we've predicted would happen. 
Ironically, all those people who attacked me and said I was trying to 
socialize medicine, which was a ridiculous charge, trying to have the 
Government take over health care, which is a ridiculous charge, they got 
their way in that debate, and the consequence is now we now have a 
higher percentage of Americans whose health care is funded by the 
Government than we did in 1993. But we also have a higher percentage of 
people without insurance.
    Now, I'm not going to get in the middle of that, but I'll tell you 
what questions you ought to ask. First of all, anybody who makes any 
proposal, you have to make certain choices. If you want to cover people 
who don't have coverage and you accept the premise that they all can't 
afford it, you have to decide: Are you going to make them buy insurance; 
are you going to make their employers to pay in? If not, are you going 
to have the Government do it, or are you going to have a big tax 
subsidy?
    All of those choices have problems with them. You know what the 
employer mandate problem was. We couldn't pass it, because a lot of 
people said it's too burdensome, even though we exempted small 
businesses and tried to give them subsidies. If you give all taxpayers 
subsidies, the problem is you have to give subsidies to people who 
already have insurance, and it may operate as an incentive for employers 
to drop people even faster.
    So there is no perfect plan. Let's start with that. There is no plan 
without difficulty. If it were easy, somebody would have done it 
already.
    Second question is, how much are you going--if you're going to have 
the taxpayers involved, either in a tax incentive or expenditure 
program, how much does it cost, and what do you give up? And I think 
this is the way this thing ought to debate. People ought to actually try 
to figure out what the consequences of these plans are and evaluate them 
and decide.
    You talked about the prosperity of the country. That's true. We are 
prosperous. But do we want to--how much do we want to spend on that as 
compared with eliminating child poverty or continuing to improve 
education? Are we willing to get into the Social Security surplus? If 
we're not, are we willing to raise taxes for it? In other words, I 
think--

[[Page 2549]]

whatever the choice is, I think it's important that we be as honest as 
possible about what it costs, everybody be as honest as possible that 
there is no perfect plan. And then you be as honest as possible about 
what else you're giving up if you do it. It's a very complicated issue.
    I did my best on it. I am gratified that we finally passed the Child 
Health Insurance Program. And we might get those numbers down again. 
We've now--I think we're at about 2 million. I think we've gone from 1 
million to 2 million just in the last several months in the number of 
people covered under CHIP. And if we can get up to 5 million, with CHIP 
and extra Medicare kids--and the States are really gearing up, now; 
they're really trying, now--then maybe we can drive that number back 
down some.
    And what the Vice President is trying to do is to target discrete 
populations, on the theory that you can cover more people for relatively 
less money. And that's his position, and he believes he can pass that.
    Let me just say one other thing. It makes me proud to be a Democrat. 
I am proud that, number one, that my party is debating this. And as near 
as I can see, there is no debate going on in the other party. And if 
they pass the size tax cut plan, they're talking about, they not only 
won't have any money to help more people get health care; they'll either 
have to get into the Social Security surplus, or they won't have any 
more money for education or the environment or anything else. That's the 
first thing I want to say.
    The second thing I want to say is, I'm grateful that my country is 
doing so well that these kinds of issues can be debated in this way and 
be seriously debated, but I'm not going to get into handicapping the 
campaign. I can tell you what questions I think you should ask, how you 
should analyze it. But there is no perfect solution here. And I'm glad 
that the two candidates in the Democratic Party are debating it.
    Yes, go ahead. I promised these people.

Space Program

    Q. Mr. President, in the decade that's just closing, the American 
people have seen around $1.5 billion of their tax dollars lost in 
space--most recently, either up in smoke in the Martian atmosphere or 
trashed on Mars, itself. Does NASA need better quality control or better 
management? And sir, how do you answer Americans who say that that money 
could be much better spent on more urgent needs here on this planet?
    The President. Well, let me try and answer all those questions. 
First of all, I think Dan Goldin has done a great job at NASA. He's 
adopted a lot of economy measures and gone for small and more discreet 
missions, including more unmanned missions, that I think make a lot of 
sense.
    Secondly, we all use the slogan, ``Well this isn't rocket science.'' 
Well, this is rocket science. We're trying to take a spaceship the size 
of a boulder and throw it 450 miles into a very uncongenial atmosphere 
and hit a target, and it isn't easy. I regret that both of those things 
didn't succeed as much as we all--the first Mars mission we got quite a 
lot out of--because I think it's important. I think it's important not 
only for the American tradition of exploration but it's important if we 
want to know what's--we have to keep doing this if we ever hope to know 
what's beyond our galaxy. We now know there are billions of them out 
there, and we know there are all these big black holes in the universe. 
We know all these things, and I think it's important that we find out.
    The third point I'd like to make is that we actually do get a lot of 
benefits here on Earth from space travel. We get benefits in engineering 
advances, in material science, in environmental protection, and in 
medical science. We've made quite a lot of interesting health-related 
discoveries. I remember going down to the Space Center in Houston and 
talking to people who were from the vast medical complexes in Houston 
about all the interesting joint work they were doing.
    So I think the American people get things out of it right now. I 
think we have gotten a lot out of it in the past, and I think we'll get 
more out of it in the future. So I have always been a big proponent of 
the space program. They need to analyze what went wrong and figure out 
how to fix it.
    But just think of all the problems we've had along the way with the 
space program. This is too bad, but this is nothing compared to the 
tragedy when those astronauts burned

[[Page 2550]]

to death when their spaceship was still on the ground. I'll never forget 
that as long as I live. But they didn't quit, and America didn't quit, 
and I'm glad. And I don't think we should quit now.
    Go ahead.

WTO-China Agreement

    Q. Mr. President, one of the things left on your plate for next year 
is pushing the historic trade agreement with China on Capitol Hill. 
China's labor standards are clearly not what you and the world community 
would wish for. And the question is, will it be difficult for you to 
sell that to members of your own party in Congress? And more broadly, 
what do you think are the prospects for Congress approving the WTO 
accord with China?
    The President. Well, in our caucus some are for it; some are against 
it; and some have questions. We have a good deal of support for it and a 
good deal of opposition to it, and then some have questions. But I'm 
going to make an all-out effort to pass it. And I'll come back to your 
labor question in a minute.
    I think it is plainly in America's interest. We gave up nothing, in 
terms of market access, to get this. It's very important that you 
understand that. What we gave in this was our assent to China's joining 
the WTO. What we got in return is much more market access on everything 
from farmers to people in the telecommunications industry. This is a 
huge economic benefit to the people of the United States. Plus, we have 
a big and growing trade deficit with China. We've got specific 
protections on dumping and antisurge protections. So it is in the 
economic interest of the United States.
    Secondly, it is in the strategic interest of the United States. One 
of the great questions of the next several decades, as China's economy 
grows to match the size of its population, is whether China and the 
United States will have a constructive relationship or be at odds. I 
believe that, just as we worked together in the United Nations, even 
though we sometimes disagree, we will work together in the WTO. I think 
having China in a rule-based system for the international economy is 
profoundly important. And I think it would be a terrible mistake not to 
do it.
    Now, do I agree with all their labor standards? No. But we shouldn't 
impose conditions on membership on China that we don't impose on any 
other country to get into the WTO. What we should do, in any judgment, 
is to go back to the American position. We ought to begin a dialog on 
these labor initiatives within the WTO--that's all we ask for--and then 
we ought to get everybody to ratify the International Convention on 
Child Labor and observe it and deal with the other most egregious forms 
of labor abuses in the world. That is the right way to proceed here.
    Last question.

National Sovereignty and Internationalism

    Q. Mr. President, in future years, what do you see taking great 
precedence, sir, national sovereignty or international institutions? And 
how does the world prevent such slaughters as you've had recently in the 
Balkans, in Africa, or East Timor, without violating national 
sovereignty or interfering in international affairs?
    The President. Well, first of all, at least from the International 
Declaration of Human Rights, 50 years ago, the world community 
recognized that sovereignty was not the only value in human society. The 
Russians, even though they've criticized our intervention in Kosovo--
although now I might say the Russian soldiers are doing a very good job 
there, working with all the other Allies--recently acknowledged in their 
signing off of the new charter of the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe, that the internal affairs of a country can become 
the legitimate concern of others, whether it's in East Timor--now, wait 
a minute.
    So what I think will happen is, national sovereignty is going to be 
very, very important for a very, very long time. But countries are 
becoming more interdependent, and they will still have to make decisions 
about the kinds of internal systems they will have for how their people 
live together and work together; they will still be able to make 
decisions about when they will or won't cooperate worldwide in many 
areas. But if you want

[[Page 2551]]

the benefits of interdependence, you have to assume the responsibilities 
of it.
    And we've all recognized that from the beginning of the United 
Nations, nobody, no country in the United Nations, has given up its 
sovereignty, even though some people still allege that's true. But the 
more interdependent the world grows, the more likely we are, in my 
judgment, to have more broadly shared prosperity, fewer wars, and a 
better life for everyone. That does not require us to give up our 
national sovereignty, but it does require us to act in our real national 
interests.
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. Last question.

Minorities on the White House Staff

    Q. Thank you. I have another question on the issue of race, and it's 
on your record of appointing minorities to top-level jobs in your 
administration. You've talked throughout your career about the 
importance of diversity and inclusion, and, setting aside your Cabinet 
and Federal bench appointees, the top seven West Wing jobs in your 
administration have all been held by whites. Twenty-six people have had 
the jobs----
    The President. I disagree with that. What are they?
    Q. Well, Chief of Staff, National Security, Domestic Policy, 
Economic Adviser, White House Counsel, Press Secretary, Senior Adviser, 
Counselor--all those jobs have been held by--not a single person of 
color has held any of those jobs. And I wonder if you could tell us why?
    The President. Well, first of all, you might be interested to know 
there were a couple of people of color that I tried to get to do those 
jobs but preferred other jobs in the administration. And they had jobs 
they liked better. And I have--you didn't point out that a lot of those 
jobs have been held by women, who also had never held those jobs before 
I came along. And I think that--all I can tell you is I have never not 
tried to recruit minorities for any job that was open in the White 
House. And I have never followed a quota system. I have had more blacks 
who have served in my Cabinet, more Hispanics who served in my Cabinet, 
more people from Asia have been appointed to my administration than any 
previous administration by far. It's not even close. So there was never 
a decision made. I now have a Hispanic woman who is my Deputy Chief of 
Staff.
    So I never thought about those seven jobs to the exclusion of 
others. I've tried to make sure that the senior jobs--my Political 
Director is an African-American woman. Alexis Herman, before she became 
Secretary of Labor, was head of Public Liaison. I was unaware that those 
were the seven most important jobs in my Cabinet and in the White House 
in the way that you said them.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President's 185th news conference began at 2:36 p.m. in the 
Dean Acheson Auditorium at the State Department. In his remarks, he 
referred to Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel; Chairman Yasser Arafat 
of the Palestinian Authority; President Hafiz al-Asad and Foreign 
Minister Farouk al-Shara of Syria; Juan Gonzalez, father of Cuban 
refugee Elian Gonzalez; President Andres Pastrana of Colombia; President 
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela; former Senator George J. Mitchell, who chaired 
the multiparty talks in Northern Ireland; President Leonid Kuchma of 
Ukraine; former Senator Bob Dole; former Independent Counsel Kenneth 
Starr; and President Boris Yeltsin of Russia.