[Remarks unrelated to health-care reform have been omitted. The full text of all electronically transmitted White House news releases can be found in the newsgroup ALT.POLITICS.CLINTON] --------------------------------------------------------------------- THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ____________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release October 26, 1993 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY AT NAFTA MEETING WITH MEMBERS OF CONGRESS The Cabinet Room 11:46 P.M. EDT [Remarks about NAFTA omitted] Q Mr. President, the National Association of Manufacturers has again today said that the health care plan is too cumbersome, too complicated, too expensive -- should be scaled back. Are you going into some real headwinds on this as you unveil it tomorrow? THE PRESIDENT: No. I don't know what their position is. After their position was reported last time, the next day they called and apologized. Q But only for leaking the letter, not for their position. They repeated the position -- THE PRESIDENT: No, they called and said that it overstated their position. All I know is that most manufacturers are going to save money under this. And if they want to look a gift horse in the mouth, that can be their decision. Q But have you -- scale it back? THE PRESIDENT: No, absolutely not. If they don't want lower premiums, they can keep higher premiums and rising costs. It's their decision. But most -- almost all manufacturers, nearly 100 percent of them provide health insurance. And they will be the biggest gainers in the private sector under this. Now, if they want to walk away from having their retiree burdens alleviated and having their premiums costs go way down, that's their privilege. But I think when the constituency out there -- if we can get people to look at the evidence, I think that they will want to do that. I think that all they're doing is -- here, this organization is like everybody else -- they're going to lobby for the best deal they can get. They're going to lobby for fewer extra services so their premiums will go down even more. But keep in mind, they're already among the big winners in this thing. And I think that they're just out there staking out a negotiating position like everybody else. We've just started this and it will go on for several months. And you'll see a lot more of it. I'm not discouraged by that at all. [Remarks regarding Canadian elections, deficit reduction omitted.] END 11:52 A.M. EDT