The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 31, 1996
Press Briefing
By Mike Mccurry
The Briefing Room
1:36 P.M. Est
Mr. Mccurry: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I
expect a guest visitor momentarily who will tell you more about the
state visit of French President Jacques Chirac.
Q The President? Is the President going to be here?
Mr. Mccurry: Will President Clinton be here for that?
Yes, he will be. He's looking forward to it.
Q Well, we're going to get the same briefing he's
going to get, right?
Mr. Mccurry: He's actually well into that subject
already. Mr. Panetta reports that he's having a good time puttering
around today, catching up on reading. And, no, I don't know whether
Primary Colors is on his list -- did I anticipate that question? And
just doing some other work. Leon had a brief conversation with him a
short while ago.
Q Would you share Haley Barbour's assessment that Ron
Wyden's win in Oregon is a wake-up call for President Clinton?
Mr. Mccurry: I think that's another indication Mr.
Barbour's been asleep himself for far too long. Senator-elect Wyden
very forcefully and articulately advanced a common theme that
Democrats have been using all around this country, to make the case
for a very positive vision for this country.
He talked about Medicare and Medicaid solvency, he
talked especially about protecting the environment, he talked about
the needs to make sure we have adequate investments in education and
technology so we can have strong economic performance in the future,
he talked about helping working people in this country get a better
shake, he talked about keeping the level of our political discourse
civil.
And in all of those things there should be echoes of
someone you are all familiar with here, and that's the President of
the United States. And I think the arguments that the President,
that others are advancing now are painting a very positive portrait
of what this country can be in the 21st century and that's what wins
elections. And the President, obviously having helped in his own
way, and having seen other members of the administration campaign
vigorously for Senator-elect Wyden is very deliciously gratified at
the victory.
Q Why is the President going to shy away from asking
Americans to elect a Democratic Congress?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, that's not at all what he had
intended -- he intended to convey. What he conveyed, I think, if you
look at the substance of what he said, is that you can elect
candidates in this country when you put forth positive ideas about
what they will do when they get to office. The best way to elect
people is not to go slap a party label on them and say that's the
reason you should vote.
The best thing is for candidates to get out there
and actively make their case for office, as Ron Wyden did, and the
President believes that's what he will do. And as he does that he
will elect a whole bunch of Democrats along with him, because there's
an excitement within the Democratic party about the ideas the
President has been conveying.
That was very clear after the State of the Union address
the other night. And the President believes that by putting forth
that kind of positive vision of where this country can go and not
basing everything on partisan politics, but basing it on where we're
going to go in this country and how candidates for office would
propose to lead to that future, they will be successful and they will
win. And we believe that will go hand in hand with all of the work
the President will do with the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee,
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. We've already heard
from the Dscc today, thanking the White House for the work that they
did in the Oregon race; we'll do a lot more of that. The President
will be vigorously, aggressively campaigning with Democratic
candidates all around the country.
But the point is, the point the President made is it's
not enough just to say, "We're Democrats, vote for us." What's
important is to say, "Here's what we will do, here is why our vision
counts and here's where we would propose to lead," because that's
what will win elections for the Democratic Party.
Q But that interview clearly leaves the impression
that he does not care whether he wins back the House or the Senate.
Mr. Mccurry: Then you need to read it more carefully.
Q That his party does not.
Mr. Mccurry: Have we put out the whole transcript?
Have we put out the entire transcript of the interview? We will
contact The Washington Post and ask them whether --
Q Aren't there a lot of Democrats --
Mr. Mccurry: We may not be able to do that, because The
Washington Post is going to use additional parts of this interview
for future reporting. But I would suggest to you in the whole length
of what he said, maybe we can work to address that.
Q Well, how many Democrats have been calling --
Mr. Mccurry: On this point the President was very
clear. He said, you simply using party levels is self-defeating.
What counts is to put forward a vision that can elect everybody
together.
Q The whole answer on this question is in The
Washington Post. I think so.
Mr. Mccurry: I think it is. DId you guys run any -- I
can't remember if you wrote transcripts.
Q Not having any negative feedback on that?
Q Mike, what about the quote, the specific quote,
"The American people don't think it's the President's business to
tell them what ought to happen in congressional elections"? That
makes no mention of party politics. He just says it.
Mr. Mccurry: The President is saying, and the point he
is making in the interview is, historically, there is not much
evidence that presidential presidents have coattails; that's been
true of some of our recent presidents, in fact, it's been more true
of our most recent presidents, that their coattails don't extend very
far.
The President -- what he wants to do when he makes his
appearances on behalf of Democratic candidates is point to what,
together, he would do with these candidates to change this country.
That's the way to persuade people. He's not going to go out and say,
"Vote for Clinton and, by the way, give me a Democratic Congress
because that's going to make life easier for me." He's going to --
"Look what we can do together if you elect these candidates who share
this vision, who can move this country forward." That's the nature
of the appeal he will make.
Q But did the President say that Democratic
candidates elected is not going to be one of his priorities in the
campaign?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't believe he said that, and another
person who shared the opportunity with me doesn't recall him saying
that. What we'd like to do is, we will contact The Washington Post
and see if we can't put out that portion of the transcript so I don't
have to reconstruct what the President said, because he was very,
very clear, and I think there is no way you could interpret that
saying he doesn't care about having a Democratic Congress; of course
he does, he'd love to have more Democrats elected, he wants to have a
Democratic Congress to work with. But the point is, why? What are
we going to do with that Democratic Congress? What will a Democratic
Congress and a president do together to change the country?
Q Well, what's he been able to do with a Republican
Congress?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, not much.
Q What's he going to do with a Democratic Congress?
Mr. Mccurry: We prevented them from doing bad things.
Now we need to move forward and do good things for this country.
Q Why didn't the President make an appearance in
Oregon to campaign for Wyden?
Mr. Mccurry: He worked a lot back here on his behalf.
He helped get Cabinet members out there. The Wyden campaign
contacted us about a possible trip, but it couldn't fit with the
President's calendar, so the President did ask the Vice President to
represent him and the Wyden campaign was very gratified that the Vice
President could appear.
Q Did the President call Wyden after he got back from
Bosina to tell him where it is?
Mr. Mccurry: He called him at 1:15 this morning to wish
him congratulations.
Q Not very many of the voters in an exit poll said
they were basing their vote on either the Republican Congress or the
President? But a majority of the voters who said they were basing it
on the President, 60 percent of them voted for a Republican
candidate. Isn't that bad news for Clinton?
Mr. Mccurry: No. I believe this is a reflection of
exactly what the President was saying yesterday. It's not partisan
label, it's not a president saying, "Vote for me because I stand with
Clinton, or this guy stands with me." They want -- the voters want
to know what these people will do when they get elected; they want to
know where they're going to lead the country. And you've got to go
out and make the case on those grounds, and that's what Ron Wyden
did, and that's why he's the Senator-elect.
Q Mike, will the President be campaigning for or with
any Democrats in either New Hampshire or Iowa?
Mr. Mccurry: He'll see a broad cross-section of
Democrats in both places, and I assume some of them are going to be
candidates for office, but we'll work that up as we get more details.
Q You don't know that if he's going to be campaigning
directly for a --
Mr. Mccurry: Well, I don't -- if I'm not mistaken, in
New Hampshire, we've got a situation where there is a primary going,
a Democratic primary going on. We, by tradition, try not to inject
ourselves in contests within the party. But certainly in the future
and future trips he'll be meeting with Democratic candidates.
Q Is the suggestion, though, that the President's
going to be playing down the party label?
Mr. Mccurry: No, the suggestion is -- look, it's real
simple. He said appeals based simply on the party label are
self-defeating -- I'm paraphrasing here, but this was his point --
because people, you know, if you scrape away what voters -- most
voters in this country they, you know, say -- there are a lot more
independents, first of all; and a lot of voters, Democrats or
Republicans say, look, I vote the person. I want to know what these
people are going to do.
So, in other words, you've got to go to them and you've
got to say this is what I would propose to do if elected, this is
what our country is about, this is what I think our future is about
as a nation and as a people. And that's the most powerful argument
that you can make, and it's the one that people want to hear.
You know, it's not sufficient to go to people and say
just vote Democratic.
Q Yeah, but who ever says that and who ever suggested
that the President would ever run around the country trying to elect
a Democratic Congress by saying vote Democratic? Nobody's done that
for decades. Isn't that -- that's not a false alternative, is it,
Mike?
Mr. Mccurry: I guess you're saying what the President
said was maybe self-evident, but I think it is rather self-evident.
You've got to go out and talk to the issues that people care about if
you expect to get elected. And, indeed, that's the most important
thing to do in order to get a --
Q But they did vote for a Democratic party and so
forth. I thought you did stand with your party.
Mr. Mccurry: Well, you can ask political scientists
this question and get better answers. But the precise way in which
people make judgments on candidates is more likely to be based on
what they believe is going to be best for them, best for the country,
best for their community and how they address issues that they care
about.
Q Mike, doesn't the President, though, believe that
it makes tremendous difference to his own agenda in a second term, as
to whether Congress is controlled by Democrats or by Republicans?
Mr. Mccurry: The President, as he knows from his own
experience, especially in 1993 when we couldn't get any Republican to
support his economic program, that you sometimes have to work only
with the members of your own party. But what has this President been
suggesting in the wake of an election of a Republican Congress? That
we've got to pull together, work together, work across the aisle,
find common ground that can unite common sense people from both
parties and move forward on the nation's agenda. I don't think you
can rely -- any president, particularly when our politics are very
evenly divided and evenly split, it would not make sense to rely
solely on one party.
Now, he wants to elect a Democratic Congress and he
wants to elect Democrats to Congress. By and large across this land,
those are the people who are going to share his agenda, share his
objective. The President's program is better off with more of them
in Congress.
Q Let me just follow-up on that. In the
not-too-distant past, both Democratic and Republican presidents had
absolutely no qualms about going out to the country and saying, I
want, I hope you voters will give me a Congress of my own party,
regardless of whether there might be a few crumb bums in there
because it is important as to who is going to be Chairman of Ways and
Means, who is going to be Chairman of Appropriations and so on.
What Clinton seems to be saying in the interview with
The Post is that that doesn't matter --
Mr. Mccurry: Look, that's not a fair reading of what he
is saying. What he's suggesting is, you know, you can't go to people
in this country and say, give me a Democratic Congress, because the
first question they're going to ask -- which is a legitimate question
-- is, why? What are you going to do with a Democratic Congress?
What do you propose to do? How are you going to lead this country?
And what the President is saying is, for his -- from his view, it is
self-defeating to make an argument solely based on the partisan
label, much more important to make an argument based on the broad
vision.
Q Related to the designation of February as African
American History Month, what is the latest on the President's efforts
to bridge the nation's racial division?
Mr. Mccurry: He has, of course, been using his
opportunities to speak to the nation on this subject because that's a
very important part of the role he plays as President. He identified
this for himself as a task of leadership that he wanted to meet,
because the President can address those divisions in our society that
keep people apart. So he has talked often about that, most recently,
I believe, say, at the memorial service for the late Barbara Jordan.
But he will continue to do that. We are continuing our
work here on ways in which we can structure a more formal effort to
address the question of racial divisions in our society and, most
importantly, we continue to work on those policies that the
government pursues that provide opportunity for people of color in
minority communities and that reward those efforts to bring people
together to find common ground that bridges some of the gaps that do
exist.
Q Mike, the President is quoted in this interview as
saying, "The American people don't think it's the President's
business to tell them what ought to happen in the congressional
elections." A year ago last fall, the President was out campaigning
extensively in state after state, for candidate after candidate,
telling them exactly that. Has he changed his mind about that?
Mr. Mccurry: No.
Q Does he believe that this coattail thing doesn't
work? What does he mean by this statement?
Mr. Mccurry: I will ask him and follow-up with him.
What he clearly will do, what he has done and what he plans now is to
campaign on behalf of candidates who are Democrats for Congress. But
I would suggest to you that the argument he's making is, you can't
make that argument. You can't make that campaign appeal simply and
only on the basis of party affiliation. You've got to have a broader
agenda, you have to have a broader set of ideas you bring before
voters if you expect those ideas to resonate and to make any headway.
Q New subject? Yesterday, the U.S. signed with
Russia an agreement that would roll back tariffs on U.S. airplanes
being imported into Russia. Can you give us some details on that
agreement?
Mr. Mccurry: Is that the Aleutian aspect? Yes. This
is -- basically, some discussions that went around the Ex-Im Bank's
agreement to finance export of Pratt and Whitney engines and
avionics. That'll be worth about $1 billion worth of contract
activity for, I think it's 20 aircraft. Is that right? The Russians
agreed to increase market access for Western planes, they also agreed
that they would move toward the international conventions that govern
commercial aircraft manufacture, I believe. I think that's one of
the aspects of the international conventions that had been a subject
of bilateral discussion between the two countries.
This obviously is a deal that is good for the Russian
aircraft industry, for the Russian airlines that need American
planes, but it's also good for U.S. manufacturers who are going to
make the component parts and also are going to get now a much better
chance at selling their own products as the Russian market opens.
Q Can I follow-up and just ask you, are they actually
rolling back the 30 percent tariffs?
Mr. Mccurry: I have to defer --
Mr. Johnson: I think some of the details are being
worked out, but we expect a rollback.
Mr. Mccurry: We'll check. We can check and get some
more from either Ustr or the other people who worked on it.
Q On the economy, the wholesale prices went up a
second straight month. Is this signs of perhaps inflation?
Mr. Mccurry: No. In fact, almost directly to the
contrary. I believe some of our administration economists have now
been out and reacted to this news, but there were seasonal variances
and weather variances in this, and by and large, the data reflect low
rates of inflation with continued, steady growth, which is
encouraging news for the economy.
Q And what about the Fed? Greenspan's term ends
March 2nd. Is Clinton going to reappoint him, or are you going to
wait until after this afternoon?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't have anything new on those
subjects.
Q Mike, are you satisfied now that the dispute
between Greece and Turkey is over? What does the administration
intend to do in the weeks ahead to make sure there's no other --
Mr. Mccurry: Well, the immediate cause of the
escalation of tension between the two countries has been successfully
resolved, in our view, and that's been confirmed by both the
government of Turkey and the government of Greece. There will be
continue to be tensions within the Aegean and between the two
governments that need to be addressed, and a large part of our
diplomacy is aimed at that.
I expect that the State Department by now has already
announced that Assistant Secretary Holbrooke will be going to Athens
and Ankara for follow-up conversations with both governments, and we
will continue our separate efforts through our diplomacy to address
issues of conflict between the two countries, particularly the issue
of Cyprus.
Q Do you know when the President will sign the
defense authorization bill?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't. We have it, no action expected
today, and we've got some deliberations within the administration
related to the Hiv issue which are very important to us, and those
will proceed simultaneously. But we'll keep you apprised of any
plans to sign it.
Q Has the bill arrived already?
Mr. Mccurry: It arrived here today and there's -- we've
already indicated to you what the disposition of the bill will be.
He will sign it --
Q And there's no change in that? The decision has
been made that he will sign it?
Mr. Mccurry: That's correct. But we continue to be
concerned about, particularly about the discharge provision for Hiv
positive individuals, and we are working simultaneously to address
that issue.
Q What options are available?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, that's what we're trying to work
through right now.
Q What can you tell us about President Chirac's visit
tomorrow and --
Mr. Mccurry: I've got -- a guest visitor will be here
momentarily.
Q -- and do you have a view on the call from a group
of House Democrats asking the Republican leadership to withdraw the
invitation to address the joint session?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't even know anything about that.
The first I've heard of that. But we've got -- and I've got someone
will be here shortly to do a little presentation on the state visit.
Q Two more on bills -- a follow-up, on your long
answer yesterday on the farm bill. But does the administration -- is
the administration committed to easing out farm subsidies at some
point, and if so, how are you going to go about it?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, in Secretary Glickman's letter
yesterday we go through a whole recitation of how we continue to keep
a financial safety net that would simultaneously provide some
flexibility as to planning so that people are growing crops for their
family income and not for the government. Those subsidy issues have
been worked through a long time. We think we can find common ground
with Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, structuring the
necessary support programs that will keep farmers protected from
counter-cyclical effects in the economy, but also at the same time
introduce more market elements, more competition, more common sense
and, most of all, more flexibility for the farmer.
Q So, in other words, the subsidies and the Eat
continue indefinitely?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, that's not necessarily so. I mean,
there's strong interest in making sure we tailor these programs so
they meet the needs of the future. A lot of work has been done,
particularly by Secretary Glickman, on exactly that point.
But he traced through in his letter yesterday, I think,
a pretty good explanation of how we would approach some of those
issues and why we think the current draft of the House bill just
heads in the wrong direction.
Q And -- partial birth abortion; anything new on that
bill? Is that --
Mr. Mccurry: Nothing new on that, as far as I know.
Q Do you have an update on the search for the robbers
who attacked Mark Fabiani?
Mr. Mccurry: No, I don't. You should contact the
Alexandria Police Department.
Q Is he still at work and still --
Mr. Mccurry: He's been at work every day this week and
no worse for wear and still cool as a cucumber and not -- and gets
our calm under fire award.
Q Is he using a different Atm machine?
Q Can you give us an update on the budget talks? You
said that there might be follow-on talks from the moderate Democrats
talks last night?
Mr. Mccurry: I didn't get anything that indicates
anything formally structured. But coming out of the meeting last
night, there was a lot of interest in continuing to pursue some of
the ideas that the President had been talking about and that, indeed,
some of the members brought in on how they could design some type of
bipartisan approach, building on all the different -- I'd almost
describe them as consensus documents that are out there.
We've got the possibility of a consensus document built
around the President's discussions with the Republican leaders.
There have been efforts like the ones that Senators Breaux and Chafee
have pushed forward. Senator Daschle has introduced some legislative
elements that are useful. The coalition, which is the so-called
"blue dog group" in the House has got additional ideas that they have
structured.
All of those now become, you know, part of the elements
of what could be on the table and be enacted. And we are looking for
a way to try to get as much momentum as quickly as possible
behind -- you know, we think the place to do it and the place to
start is behind the $700 billion that clearly are in common between
what the President advanced and what the Speaker and the Senate
Majority Leader advanced from the Republican side during their
discussions here at the White House. They've got elements in common
in those two plans that can balance the budget, they total more than
$700 billion. They produce real deficit reduction, they produce a
balanced budget, and we ought to do it now for the American people.
Simultaneously, we've got to extend the debt limit and
get that worked on, and you heard from Mr. Panetta on that subject
earlier.
Q On that subject, what do you see the prospects for
having a vote on the debt ceiling before the 26th?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, the prospects are, I'm inclined to
say absolutely certain because it's absolutely necessary and they
know it. But with this Congress, one wonders sometimes. But we
certainly hope that by that deadline of the 26th, when we've got
obligations that are due -- I think the Treasury, you know, can tell
you more about what the deadline is for the actual pending debt or
the default limit, they can tell you more about that, but that our
view is that sometime well before that, Congress should address that
issue. It's not clear that that's going to happen.
Q Along those lines what, if anything, are you
hearing about the Republicans? The Chief of Staff was sort of
preaching to the choir this morning at the House Democratic Caucus,
but what about the Gop?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, they can -- very quickly, if they
can muster up some leadership to go with some of the followership
we've been seeing within the Republican ranks, they can very quickly
bring themselves to a point where they could meet the President on
some of these issues and get an agreement; the President believes
that.
Q Are you getting any indication from them that
they're interested in doing that? Do you hear anything back from
them at all?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, they've been -- most of what we hear
has been coming from the campaign trail because that's where they've
been otherwise occupied. But we don't rule out the possibility that
they could, in fact, work with moderates on both sides of the aisle
and fashion a package that would get a majority, if not an
overwhelming majority, support in both caucuses in both sides of the
aisle.
Q There's no actual business discussion going on?
Mr. Mccurry: There's no negotiations underway, but
there are always discussions underway.
Q Assuming, Mike, that the Republicans are going to
leave town for the next three weeks --
Mr. Mccurry: Where are they going?
Q I don't know.
Mr. Mccurry: Iowa, New Hampshire.
Q The President constitutionally, I gather, cannot
order them back because it's recess rather than a adjournment -- but
would he use the bully pulpit, would he jawbone them back to
Washington?
Mr. Mccurry: Well, he was, in that sense, jawboning
yesterday when he talked for all of you prior to the budget meeting,
but he continues to urge Congress to take those necessary steps and
do it soon; and we will, if we get deeper into the month of February
with no action on this necessary measure, evaluate what else we need
to do to push the case.
Q They're going to be gone three weeks. How is he
going to get action? I mean, it seems very desultory, your whole
approach here.
Mr. Mccurry: I share your criticism of Congress.
Q Are you indicating there might be some breakthrough
imminent on the debt ceiling?
Mr. Mccurry: No.
Q Has Mark Fabiani looked at any of the Atm photos
yet?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't know. He deals with the press all
day long, so you ought to give him a call.
Q Can you tell us how you intend to convince
television producers and networks that a voluntary rating system is a
good idea, and if you're successful, what the earliest date it can be
implemented might be?
Mr. Mccurry: That's something that we will pursue when
we have the informal meeting with media executives that the President
talked about in his State of the Union Address, but the President is
not at all certain that it will take a lot of convincing. He detects
within the industry a great deal of common sense, concern about kids,
and we think we can find ways to address this issue that is to the
satisfaction of the networks; indeed, that's one of the very reasons
why we're going to have a meeting of this nature to really work
together to see if we can find common approaches.
Q When is that going to be?
Mr. Mccurry: Haven't set a date yet. They were looking
at late February or early March, right? They expect to have some
details on participation and timing very shortly.
Q Is he going to ask for three hours of educational
programming for children?
Mr. Mccurry: There are a lot of different ideas that
are in circulation about how you could expand the amount of time
available for programming that's good for kids that parents can be
satisfied is the right kind of programming for children. But that's
-- rather than us lay down specific ideas, I think we want to work in
the context of seeing what's developed within the industry and within
the entertainment community itself. They've got ideas, too, a lot of
them are very outspoken. We hope to have people who, themselves,
have got some ideas on how to best address the question and see if we
can come up with consensus.
Q In other words, the Fcc Commissioner to the
Chairman has said he wants a requirement for three hours, so the
President isn't necessarily going to come out for a requirement?
Mr. Mccurry: I need to go check on that. I wasn't
aware there was any rule-making --
Q You put out a statement on that --
Mr. Mccurry: -- yes, there's some rule-making or some
kind of procedure that they've got, which is doing a specific --
Q -- for the year -- government was over.
(Laughter.)
Q Mike, back to the President's remarks and quotes,
whatever they may have been, does the President still consider
himself to be the leader of the Democratic Party?
Mr. Mccurry: Yes.
Q Mike, has the President talked to any entertainment
executives since the State of the Union speech?
Mr. Mccurry: I would have to ask him. I'm not aware
that he has, but there have been contacts with them, but I'm not
aware that he personally has had any conversations like that; but I
can't rule that out without checking with him first.
Q You've addressed this in various ways, but could I
just ask you again -- do you consider the victory for Wyden in Oregon
a victory for Clinton?
Mr. Mccurry: No. Consistent with what I just said
earlier, I see it as a victory for the ideas he advanced. And I
would suggest to you, because those ideas he put forward in that
campaign are closely connected to the exact same fight that the
President has been making here, the President has ample reason to be
greatly satisfied with Ron Wyden's victory.
But don't miss the point of our discussion here today.
You need to present to the American people positive ideas about what
this country is going to be about if you're elected to high office,
and that's the way the President intends to conduct this campaign and
not do it solely on the basis that one party is right, the other
party is wrong, and that's always true under any circumstance,
because that's not the way we get forward progress in this country,
particularly in the kind of times that we live in.
Q Has the President gotten a lot of requests from
Democrats to come out and campaign?
Mr. Mccurry: A very heavy number of them. In fact,
they're now trying to figure out exactly as we look ahead to the year
and get closer to November how we come up with some way of keeping
people as happy as they can be, knowing that not everybody is going
to be able to see the President who would like the President at hand
in their district or at their event or at a particular program that
they're interested in.
We will have, not surprisingly, a way of kind of judging
different campaign requests and making sure it fits with what the
President's travel schedule will be.
Q He doesn't have any political advisors telling them
to stay away, is he?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't want to say that across the board
because I can't make a blanket statement like that without checking.
But the vast majority of the calls that our political people get are
from people who are interested in having the President appear,
campaign, be with them, help make the case, and I haven't heard many
people suggest that they're not interested in that type of support.
Q You said Wyden had requested that the President
make a personal appearance in Oregon. So, over the past several
weeks, couple months, why wasn't that a priority for the President to
schedule a visit to Oregon?
Mr. Mccurry: Look, the Oregon race was a priority for
the entire party. The Executive Director of the Democratic Senate
Campaign Committee I believe was out there in the state the entire
time; the Vice President was there; we had four Cabinet members
there. The President was on the phone related to the race. We had a
lot of our political people reaching out to help Ron Wyden's
campaign; so it was a very high priority in the race.
Now, the President cannot always go everywhere, but
sending the Vice President, sending members of the Cabinet made it
very clear that this was a very important contest for us.
Q Mike, if the President feels a candidate's
positions and policies are more important than the party label, could
you foresee an occasion where he might campaign for a Republican?
(Laughter.)
Mr. Mccurry: Not likely, because not many of them are
that enlightened.
Q So, what's your party label? (Laughter.)
Q The Inspector General -- two Republicans have put
out an Inspector General report on the Transportation Department,
saying 46 Department of Transportation officials made nearly 700
trips and they consider that excessive. Your reaction to that?
Mr. Mccurry: I believe the Transportation Department's
already reacted.
Q The dinner tonight -- you were going to put out a
guest list of the --
Mr. Mccurry: Already out, I understand.
Q We haven't seen it.
Q Is there any coverage of that?
Mr. Mccurry: No. This is a working dinner, private
occasion for the Commanders-In-Chief of the military and their
spouses, and the President and the First Lady.
* * * * * * *
Q Have you gotten word, Mike, about the Federal
Reserve's decision yet?
Mr. Mccurry: That's why I'm back. Thank you, Sandy.
I'd like to read a joint statement on behalf of Secretary of the
Treasury Robert Rubin, and Chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisors Joseph Stiglitz.
"Today the Federal Reserve, the independent agency that
sets the nation's monetary policy, lowered the federal funds rate.
This administration recognizes and respects the independence of the
Federal Reserve. We share the goal of maintaining strong economic
growth and low inflation.
This administration has taken forceful actions to get
the economy moving and the progress has been impressive. We cut the
Federal Budget deficit by more than half as a share of national
output, the economy has responded. Jobs are up by 7.8 million,
unemployment is down, investment is strong and inflation remains at
its lowest level in a generation. Although growth rates always vary
quarter to quarter, with these fundamentals in place we believe that
the economy will remain healthy in 1996. Again, that's a statement
on behalf of the Treasury Secretary and the Chairman of the Cea".
Q Do you approve of the lowering --
Q Do you welcome the action?
Mr. Mccurry: The statement, I think, speaks for itself.
Q No, it doesn't, quite.
Mr. Mccurry: -- we share the goal of maintaining strong
economic growth and low inflation, and we obviously respect the
independence of the Federal Reserve.
Q How much did they lower the rate?
Mr. Mccurry: That's already been announced by the
Federal Open Market Committee; you can refer to that.
Q Mike, do you think with this strong economy there's
room for the Fed to do more?
Mr. Mccurry: I'm not going to comment further, beyond
the statement that you've not got from the Treasury Secretary and the
Chairman of the Cea.
Q Can we get that statement?
Mr. Mccurry: We will have this in written form shortly.
Q Any thoughts about prospects for a recession this
year?
Mr. Mccurry: It's, from the statement, quite clear that
the fundamentals are in place for a strong economic performance in
1996, as the Treasury Secretary and the Chairman of the Council have
just indicated.
Q Mike, are you still geared up for Monday on the
budget the way you described it the other day, to have the short
document instead of the details?
Mr. Mccurry: Yes. My understanding from Omb is that
they plan to have kind of an outline document that will be available.
They're not planning on doing any agency-by-agency briefings. It's
bad news that we don't have a budget proposal that we can make
because of the lack of action in Congress on the Fy '96 budget, but
we do have the fortunate news that we won't have to go through a
weekend's worth of Cabinet briefings by agencies.
We will work to prepare a more detailed document for
sometime later in March.
Q Are you going to have a central briefing that you
normally have when you have the entire administration --
Mr. Mccurry: On Monday when we submit this outline?
We'll see. I mean, it's not -- a large part of this if fairly
well-known, but I'll check with Dr. Rivlin and with others in the
administration and see what we intend to do. But by no means do I
want to suggest at all that we will have any elaborate presentation.
This is going to be structurally the same elements of the budget
outline that the President has presented once already to all of you,
and obviously also to the Republican leaders.
Q Just one follow up on the Fed vacancies. Has the
President had a chance to sit down with his economic advisors and
talk to them about names and about filling the three positions?
Mr. Mccurry: The President's had some conversations
about it, but to my knowledge, he has not received any recommendation
from the National Economic Council on filling any of the vacancies.
Q Could you guess the procedure you're going to
follow is to do all three at the same time?
Mr. Mccurry: I'm not in the habit of guessing.
Q Would you suggest that would be likely?
Mr. Mccurry: I don't suggest what I don't know.
The Press: Thank you.
End 2:30 P.M. Est