clinton president s remarks on trip to baltimore the white house office of the press secretary for immediate release april remarks by the president en route to camden yards for orioles opening day game marc train en route to camden yards a m edt q mr president what do you think of jesse jackson s protest today the president i think it s an informational protest i think it s fine the owners put out a statement few days ago which they say was the first step in you know efforts to increase minority ownership and minority increases in management i think we should i m encouraged by don baylor s appointment out in colorado and i think it s time to make a move on that front so i think it s a legitimate issue and i think it s like i said it s an informational picket and not an attempt to get people not to go to the game so i think it s good q do you think they re moving fast enough the president well i think that it was a good first step and i think you ll see some movement now and i think it s an issue that deserves some attention and they re obviously going to give it some and i think that reverend jackson being out there will highlight the issue so i think it s fine q mr president how about the logjam in the senate on the economic stimulus plan do you think they ll be able to break that and get cloture the president i don t know we re working at it i mean it s a classic there was an article in the paper today one of the papers i saw which pretty well summed it up they said you know this is a it s just a political power play in the senate the majority does not rule it s not like the country it s not like the it s not like the house if the minority chooses they can stop majority rule and that s what they re doing there are a lot of republican senators who have told people that they might vote for the stimulus program but there s enormous partisan political pressure not to do it and of course what it means is that in this time when no new jobs are being created even though there seems to be an economic recovery it means that for political purposes they re willing to deny jobs to places like baltimore and dallas and houston and pittsburgh and philadelphia and portland and seattle it s very sad i mean the block grant program was designed to create jobs in a hurry based on local priorities and it s one that the republicans had always championed just about the only democrat champions of the program were people like me who were out there at the grassroots level governors and senators i just think it s real sad that they have chosen to exert the minority muscle in a way that will keep americans out of work i think it s a mistake the press thank you end a m edt
