THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 15, 1994 PRESS BRIEFING BY DEE DEE MYERS The Briefing Room 2:45 P.M. EDT MS. MYERS: No announcements today. [...] Q What is the White House telling congressional leaders in terms of timing of action on the crime bill, particularly as it relates to the schedule of votes on the health care bill? You haven't got too much time left on the Hill. Do you want this thing finished this week, the crime bill, so that you can free the House to take up health care after that? MS. MYERS: Sure, I think it's our view, the President's view, that he'd like to see this finished as quickly as possible. Speaker Foley indicated this morning that he thinks a vote is possible and it will likely happen this week. The President would certainly like to see it happen, again, as quickly as possible. As for health care, I think the House is still waiting for CBO to report back on the specifics of the bill. And in the Senate I think it's the Republican leadership, again, that's blocking further progress. If they'd just let a vote go forward, we could get on with it. Q What about the House timing on health care? Because in addition to waiting for CBO scoring reports, there's also a growing sentiment in the Democratic caucus to really put this off until after Labor Day to find out what the Senate will do in the meantime on health care. What does the President, what does the White House say to House Democrats with regard to health care and timing? MS. MYERS: Well, the President has made it very clear that he'd like to see both the House and the Senate act as quickly as possible on this. The leadership -- and he'd like to see them stay in to deal with health care and with crime. The leadership, certainly Majority Leader Mitchell, has made it clear that he's going to keep the Senate in six days a week until this gets done. And the House is still trying to work out its schedule; that's something for them to resolve. But again, I think they're waiting on CBO. And as soon as CBO produces some accounting of various plans, they can move forward. Q Would the President want the House, once CBO weighs in, to do the same thing as the Senate, to stay in for six days a week? MS. MYERS: The President has urged them to stay in to deal with this. And it's up to the House leadership now to figure out exactly how to move forward, but I think the President has made clear that he'd like to see them stay in. He's willing to stay here. He'd like to see the House and Senate stay in to deal with this. Q Dee Dee, on health care, can you tell us what went in- to the decision to abandon the commitment to guaranteed private insurance? MS. MYERS: There's been no decision to abandon that. Q Well, Dee Dee, the President has endorsed the Gephardt bill. That's 50 percent, roughly, Medicare. Obviously, if that were to pass and he were to accept it, that would be the end of that. He's publicly endorsed it, so how can there not have been -- I mean, is it willy-nilly? MS. MYERS: The priority in that plan is still -- and the presumption in that plan is still to move people into private programs. Failing that, there's a fallback of public programs in order to make sure that people have insurance. That's the top priority, is guaranteeing benefits for everybody. But the presumption is still -- and this is a question that was posed to the President at his press conference last week and one that he answered -- that the presumption is toward private. Q But, excuse me, does not the Gephardt bill inevitably result in a large expansion of public insurance? MS. MYERS: The Gephardt bill creates an opportunity for people who would not otherwise have insurance to have it through the public sector. But it also creates opportunities for people who are cur- rently on -- receiving public insurance to move into the private sector, and certainly that the presumption is to move in that direction. Q Well, it certainly can't be said to be guaranteed private insurance, can it? MS. MYERS: But it is -- it guarantees benefits for everybody, and again, the presumption is on private and it tries to move people in that direction. Q Does it guarantee presumption in favor of private insurance? Is that the principle involved here? MS. MYERS: I think the principle is benefits for everybody that can't be taken away. [...] Q Did he [the President] meet with Foley and Mitchell on this [the crime bill] today? MS. MYERS: He did not. It was Mr. Panetta [who] met with Foley and Mitchell as part of their regularly scheduled meetings to talk about crime, health care and other issues. [...] Q Dee Dee, there was a wire report that Vice President Gore might be going to Tennessee to campaign for Cooper, the Senate Democratic nominee, even though he's been critical of the administration on health care and was one of the 58 Democrats in the House who voted against the crime bill rule. Is that true, or is the White House going to be campaigning, even as the President criticizes the people who voted against it? MS. MYERS: The Vice President, I believe -- you'll have to double-check his schedule, but I believe he is going to Tennessee this week to campaign for Congressman Cooper. [...] END 3:10 P.M. EDT