> > 1. DID YOU RECEIVE DUPLICATE COPIES OF THIS MESSAGE? IF YOU > REGULARLY RECEIVE MULTIPLE COPIES OF LIST.HEALTHPLAN ITEMS > PLEASE SEND ME A MESSAGE WITH THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT LINE > IN THE MESSAGE HEADER: DUPLICATE LIST.HEALTHPLAN > ** DO *NOT* WRITE A *REPLY* TO THIS MESSAGE. IT WILL GO TO > THE WRONG ADDRESS AND WON'T HAVE THE RIGHT SUBJECT LINE. > WRITE NEW MAIL TO sfreedkin@igc.apc.org > ** IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SET THE SUBJECT: LINE IN THE > MESSAGE HEADER, PLEASE FIND OUT FROM YOUR LOCAL SYSTEM > ADMINISTRATOR BEFORE SENDING THIS MESSAGE. > > 2. I HAVE EXCERPTED THE FOLLOWING TO INCLUDE ONLY THE HEALTH- > REFORM RELATED SECTIONS. > > > -- STEVE FREEDKIN > THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 19, 1994 PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT The East Room 1:30 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. [...] Helen. Q Mr. President, on behalf of all the press corps, we want to wish you a happy birthday. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Q And now -- (laughter) -- (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT: Well, you could all do a lot to make it happy. (Laughter.) That is not a guilt trip; feel no pressure. (Laughter.) Thank you. [...] Q Mr. President, one of your fellow Democrats in the Senate, Sam Nunn of Georgia, said yesterday that it would be months if not years before a health care reform bill is produced. And the Congressional Budget Office said that a possible moderate compromise didn't cost out. There's a growing feeling in Washington that this health care crusade is hopelessly bogged down in Congress at this point. What is your view of the situation? THE PRESIDENT: That they should keep working at it; that if we don't move there's a chance that it won't happen at all. You know, the congressional timetable is often different from the American timetable. I mean, it took seven years to pass the Brady Bill and seven years to pass family leave. But for 60 years people have acknowledged that not covering all Americans and having no system for dealing with the explosive costs and the inequalities in the health care system were a problem. They have reached a significant crisis stage here, with five million more Americans losing their health insurance in the last five years alone, with the costs exploding in the last 12 years. And I believe that the time has come to deal with this. Now, Senator Nunn simply observed what I think is clearly a fact, which is that in the Senate there is unlimited debate and you can have unlimited amendments. But a lot of these issues do need to be worked through. I think the comments Senator Kennedy and Senator Mitchell made today about the fact that this bipartisan group was at least attempting to work with them, and in the process of so attempting, finding out how hard it is -- it's easy to stand on the sideline and lob brickbats at these efforts, and quite another thing to produce your own effort. But their comment made me believe that there is still a chance that people will work together and resolve this. So I would say to them, keep working, keep working at it, because if you delay, you may lose it altogether. Q Well, at this point, would you take something less than what Mitchell or Gephardt has proposed just to keep the process moving, since, as you say, if we don't get it now, we probably -- THE PRESIDENT: I think that, for one thing, that's not so easy to do, because as we've also seen from the studies of the Catholic Health Association and others, the so-called "something less" approach often does more harm than good; that when you just try to patchwork this, often you lead to more people without insurance and higher insurance rates. What I would say to you is, give the process time to unfold. I know for a you it's been going on a long time, since we first began to debate this a year and a half ago. I think for the American people, it's almost like the baseball season -- the pennant's just begun. I hope we can have the pennant in the other one, too, and the series. But I think we need to let this thing unfold a little more; I wouldn't prejudge it yet. [...] Q Mr. President, I hate to ask you one of those questions that might spoil your birthday again, but in light of problems that you have been having up on Capitol Hill, many people are wondering if changing your communication strategy, shuffling your staff might not be really addressing the problem; that perhaps I was wondering if you've thought about this -- that as a President elected with 43 percent, you may be trying to do too much too fast. And Democrats on Capitol Hill may be trying to take too much of a partisan advantage of having control of the entire government and perhaps exceeding your mandate. THE PRESIDENT: Well, first, I don't want the Democrats to take partisan advantage, I just want us to get what's necessary for the country done. I do not believe the country believes that we should sit still up here. And for all your talk about trouble, let me remind you that every objective survey says that in 1993 this administration got more support from Congress than any administration since World War II except President Eisenhower in 1953, when he had a less ambitious agenda, and President Johnson in 1965, when he had a bigger mandate and more support from the Congress. So I think we're doing quite well with the Congress if you look at it in any kind of historic pattern. Now, I realize the fights and the conflicts and the delays endure more than the achievements. But we reversed Reaganomics. We passed an economic program that was part of a strategy that has given us three years of deficit reduction for the first time since Truman, over four million jobs. We have the most advances in trade than we've had in a generation in the last year and a half. This economic program is working. We broke seven years of gridlock with the Brady Bill. We passed NAFTA, which was deader than a doornail when I became President; we revived it and passed it. So I believe this Congress is capable of working together, often on a bipartisan basis. And they still have some great opportunities here. They have the crime bill; the campaign finance reform bill; the lobby reform bill; the bill that passed the House last week that has not yet passed the Senate to require the Congress to live under the laws it imposes on the American people, which I think is a very good bill; and, of course, the health care challenge. But I believe what I have to do is to keep trying to change things. Anytime you try to provoke as much change as I have, you're going to have resistance. And you will be criticized. Is it more difficult that I had 43 percent of the vote? Perhaps it is. But I think you can make another argument, which was that 62 percent of the American people voted for fundamental change in the things that we were doing and in the way government works. If anything, I would say that I've been most disappointed, looking back, not so much in my inability to get things done, because once people look at the list it's a very long and impressive list, but I haven't been as successful in changing the way it works -- that is, in trying to get the Democrats and Republicans to reach across to each other in good faith and work through these things. That's why I think this crime bill could be an important thing. It could be a way of people in both parties saying, we're putting you first for a change, not ourselves. [...] Q Mr. President, can we turn the subject to your birthday today? What stirs within you as you celebrate another birthday? And if you could have three wishes fulfilled today, what would those three wishes be? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I woke up this morning just grateful to be here. That's what I'm feeling -- I mean, grateful to be alive, grateful to have my health, grateful to have my family, grateful to have the chance to serve. And, you know, I like the tough fights, so this is an exhilarating period for me. I like the big challenges. I think we're all put on this earth to try to make a difference. If I had three wishes, I would wish for the crime bill to pass -- (laughter) -- one; I would wish that I would make more progress on the way we do things around here as well as on the substance, because if we can open our minds and hearts to each other and play a little less politics, we can solve the health care problem, too, and other things. And I would wish that I won't have to give up my whole vacation -- (laughter) -- because I still have dreams of breaking 80 on the golf course before I'm 50. (Laughter.) Let me say, I feel that I -- this is not an easy job for you either, so since it's my birthday, if we adjourn here, let's go into the dining room and we can have some cake and whatever else is in there. Thank you very much. Come on, let's have some cake. END 2:06 P.M. EDT