[The following document is excerpted; only health-related sections are included. For the full document try the newsgroup ALT.POLITICS.CLINTON for the document with this Subject: 1994-02-02 President's Remarks in Photo Op with Bipartisan Leadership -- Steve Freedkin , LIST.HEALTHPLAN Manager] THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ____________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release February 2, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN PHOTO OPPORTUNITY WITH BIPARTISAN LEADERSHIP The Cabinet Room 10:13 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Let me say just a word here. I can't speak very loud. This is our first but what will be the first of several bipartisan leadership meetings, and I'm looking forward to a productive year. We had a good year working together in 1993. We did a lot of things, and even though we have some differences to resolve, I'm convinced that we can resolve them and work together on crime and welfare reform and health care. And I'm looking forward to it. [...] Q The Business Roundtable today is supposed to support Cooper's [conservative health-reform] bill. How will that affect you? THE PRESIDENT: They're trying to decide what their negotiating position would be. They told me yesterday -- the representatives -- that they had no thought that it would pass. They're trying to decide what their best negotiating position is. I made an argument that their best negotiating position ought to be to say what they thought was wrong with our bill, because almost all of them -- not all of them, but almost all of them favor guaranteed private insurance for everyone to stop the cost shifting to them. Most big businesses have paid higher premiums than they should have because of the cost shifting. And since they all cover their employees, most of them favor some form of universal coverage. And so I argued that if that was really their position, their best policy ought to be to give a laundry list of everything they thought was wrong with our bill, and that that was an appropriate thing, but they'll have to make their own decision about what they want to do. Q Can you convince them? THE PRESIDENT: I don't have any idea. I only talked to a handful of them, so I didn't have a shot at most of them. Q How are you feeling? THE PRESIDENT: Good. It's getting better. Q Are you going to do mostly listening or talking? THE PRESIDENT: What do you think? (Laughter.) I never learned anything talking in my life. (Laughter.) END 10:16 A.M. EST