roundtable: 1995-12-15 President Statement on Budget Negotiations (fwd)

roundtable: 1995-12-15 President Statement on Budget Negotiations (fwd)

1995-12-15 President Statement on Budget Negotiations (fwd)

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Sat, 16 Dec 1995 03:12:44 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 03:12:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: tp roundtable - messages <roundtable@cni.org>
Subject: 1995-12-15 President Statement on Budget Negotiations (fwd)
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.951216030144.2756A-100000@access2.digex.net>


This budgetary drama is telling us something about the men who run 
our Government.  The Pres is showing his stuff, and so are the others.  
Quite a show.  I think the end game has already been written ...  What 
do you say?

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 00:59-0500
From: The White House <Publications-Admin@WhiteHouse.Gov>
To: Public-Distribution@clinton.ai.mit.edu
Subject: 1995-12-15 President Statement on Budget Negotiations

				    
			    THE WHITE HOUSE
				    
		     Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                  December 15, 1995     

				    
		       STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
				    
				    
			   The Briefing Room   			     
				    



5:39 P.M. EST

	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  As all of you know, today the Republicans
in Congress broke off our negotiations on how best to balance the budget
in seven years.  They said they would not even continue to talk unless
we agreed right now to make deep and unconscionable cuts in Medicare and
Medicaid.  That's unacceptable.  The cuts they propose would deprive
millions of people of health care -- poor children, pregnant women, the
disabled, seniors in nursing homes.  They would let Medicare "wither on
the vine" into a second-class system.  And these things simply are not
necessary to balance the budget.
	     
	     You know, I don't agree with their very large tax cuts for
wealthy Americans and for all the special interests that get help in
their bill.  But I did not require them to drop those provisions as a
condition of just talking.  But they wanted us to agree to big cuts in
Medicare and Medicaid simply to talk.
	     
	     Last week, before these talks even began, I forwarded to
Congress a detailed plan to balance the budget in seven years without
violating our values.  That plan contained a large amount of deficit
reduction over and above our original proposal.  Today, we made yet
another good-faith effort to resolve our differences.  I have sought
reasonable discussions and honest compromise to balance the budget.
	     
	     Now the Republicans in Congress are not only refusing to
talk; once again they're threatening to shut the government down if I do
not accept their deep cuts in health care, education, the environment,
and their tax increases on working families.  I would not give into such
a threat last month, and I will not give in today.
	     
	     I would remind you when we signed the last resolution we
said we would work in good faith to balance the budget in seven years
without harmful cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment,
agriculture, veterans benefits, and without raising taxes on working
families.
	     
	     So let me say again, and all Americans must understand this
-- the decision by the Republican congressional majority to shut the
government down has nothing -- nothing -- to do with the discussion over
the seven-year balanced budget plan.  Congress has simply refused to
pass this year's budgets and has forced the government to operate on a
series of temporary approvals so that they can use the threat of a
shutdown to pressure me and the congressional Democrats into approving
long-term reductions in Medicare, Medicaid, education and the
environment that we believe strongly are not good for America.
	     
	     It is wrong, it is simply wrong, for the congressional
Republicans to insist that I make deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid,
or they will not even talk, and, furthermore, they will shut the
government down again just before Christmas.
	     
	     The Congress should simply pass straightforward
legislation to keep the government open.  And then our negotiators
should return to the table without threats, without ultimatums, to
discuss how we can find common ground on balancing the budget.  That is
what we ought to do.  That is what I am willing to do.  And the idea
that we should abandon the commitment we made and they agreed to just a
few days ago in not having unacceptable cuts in Medicare and Medicaid
as a condition of talking is wrong -- is wrong -- and we should not do
that.
	     
	     Thank you very much.

             END                          5:43 P.M. EST

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