[The following is excerpted from a White House release that is otherwise not related to health-care reform. After the President announced a new series of grants to cities for crime fighting, he was asked questions by reporters. The following exchange relates to health-care reform. -- Steve Freedkin, LIST.HEALTHPLAN Manager] Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release February 9, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN TELECONFERENCE CALL WITH MAYORS The Oval Office 1:54 P.M. EST [...] Q Now that you've had a chance to reflect a little bit on what the CBO said about your health care numbers, do you have any other comments -- THE PRESIDENT: No, I feel even better about it. I mean, the CBO said that we could have guaranteed private health insurance for all Americans; that it would reduce the government deficit and reduce government spending over the long run; that it wouldn't cost jobs for the American economy. I mean, I think the big-picture message is absolutely right. I think in terms of the differences, I'm studying now the differences in their calculations and ours in the next five or six years, and, basically, they agree with us about how much it will cost. They think there will be more savings on the business side and fewer savings for the taxpayers in the short run. That's really the only difference as nearly as I can see. But those are all things that we can work out. Those are relatively minor budgetary considerations and other things that we can work through to get our numbers in harmony with theirs. So I'm not at all concerned. And I don't have anything else to say to what I said yesterday. I just think that to say that a private insurance payment from one private party to another should be on the government budget -- I just don't agree with that. I mean, otherwise every state in the country would have to put workers compensation payments on their budget, and every state would have to put their mandatory drivers liability insurance on their budget. I just don't agree with -- I mean, I understand the argument, but again, I think that's something we can fix with the drafting of the bill. So I'm not concerned about it. Q You're not worried about the short-term -- impact? THE PRESIDENT: Oh, but when I had a chance to study it further, I felt even better about their analysis because if you look at their analysis, they basically agree with us about how much the program will cost and how it will impact. They think in the short run more savings will flow to private sector -- to businesses and purchases, direct purchases of health care -- and less savings to the government. And over a five-year period, Senator Moynihan at the beginning of the day said the government will spend $7.5 trillion or something in the next five years. This $70 billion, it's a big number, but spread out over five years we can easily work through it. I think we can reconcile that. I'm not worried about it. [...] THE PRESS: Thank you. END 2:09 P.M. EST