clinton press briefing by george stephanopoulos the white house office of the press secretary for immediate release april press briefing by george stephanopoulos the briefing room p m edt mr stephanopoulos i guess i m just prepared to take questions today q george bob dole says that the clinton administration s policy on bosnia is a failure and that he wants the united states to take the lead in lifting the arms embargo so that the bosnian muslims can defend themselves mr stephanopoulos as you know president clinton has said that that suggestion is under active consideration obviously this is a tragic situation in bosnia and if the bosnian serbs don t come to the negotiating table in a constructive way we ll look seriously at pressing for lifting the arms embargo in the meantime we re going to continue to press for a tough sanctions resolution in the u n we re going to continue to work on the serbs to come to the negotiating table but the prospect of an arms embargo is something the president certainly will consider if the serbs don t come to the table q how much longer are you going to give them to come to the table george mr stephanopoulos we re working on that right now q it s been a long time q on february th the president mentioned the value added tax in ohio and when he was asked about it later by reporters he said quote that is a radical change in the tax system of the united states it s something i think we may have to look at in the years ahead questioned again about it later he says it is not something that is now under consideration if we start considering it i ll tell you it wasn t a trial balloon or anything he said i was just discussing the tax response to a question donna shalala quoted in usa today this morning quote certainly we re looking at a vat what s gone on q the same with alice rivlin this morning mr stephanopoulos the health care task force is reviewing a number of options they haven t made any decisions yet and as i have said from this podium time and time again we re not going to comment on decisions that haven t been made q but you have also said from this podium time and time again q wait a minute whoa nelly whoa q that that was not under consideration q yes clinton says it is not something that is now under consideration is that no longer true mr stephanopoulos i believe the working group as ms shalala says has looked at this prospect but no decisions have been made of any kind q well i know but he said he d tell us about it if it was ever under consideration i take it that now he is and he didn t tell us about it or mr stephanopoulos did he say if it was under consideration or if it was something to be proposed q if we start considering i ll tell you mr stephanopoulos if it s something to be proposed q if we start considering it i ll tell you that s a direct quote mr stephanopoulos the task force has looked at a number of different options they have not made any decisions yet the president has not made any decisions yet this is one of the proposals under consideration by the task force was to go out and cast as wide a net as possible for different ideas on how to reform the health care system they have cast a very wide net they have looked at hundreds of different proposals probably thousands of different proposals but the president has not made any decisions q well is the president aware of their consideration of this option mr stephanopoulos i don t know if he s been briefed on any preliminary conclusions or anything like that from the task force on this specific proposal of any kind i don t know that that s gotten to his level he started yesterday to go through with the task force a very wide range of decisions and i don t believe that that s been presented to him no q well he s not relying on the usa today to tell him what his task force is considering in the way of taxes mr stephanopoulos no he s going through it in a very deliberate fashion there are a number of decisions that have to be made i don t know that this proposal has reached that decision making point q if this is still under consideration that s a change at least from what we ve been told by dee dee i think about three weeks ago or so she said that is not an option talking about the had a big argument with somebody over this so i remember it specifically and said it not once but twice is that not the case mr stephanopoulos again i don t know if this has been presented to the president as something that is being looked at at some level in the task force q it was ruled it out though i mean unlike other options that you ve kept in the mix this one specifically was ruled out mr stephanopoulos again this is something that is being looked at but no decision has been made of any kind i mean it doesn t it s not necessarily material until you get to the decision making phase the working groups are looking at hundreds of different options q if it was ruled out before and it s not ruled out now then something has changed george yes no q when a guy says in february mr stephanopoulos well the working groups are looking at the widest possible range of options q so something s changed they weren t looking at it before they re looking at it now mr stephanopoulos well i don t know if the working groups have gotten to that point yet they are casting a very wide net q how was it possible that you and dee dee were able to sell definitively rule it out as an option previously and now are saying that in fact it is being considered mr stephanopoulos again the working groups are looking at a wide range of options they have not q do you deny that you and dee dee ruled it flatly ruled it out on several occasions in the past month mr stephanopoulos i don t deny that i mean those are the president s words those are very clear q subsequent to the president s words do you deny that within the last month you and dee dee have both publicly ruled it out mr stephanopoulos i don t know about the timing i think what we did was refer back to the president s words and say they stand q so don t they stand any longer q march th clinton said for the next four to five years it was ruled out mr stephanopoulos well those words the president did say that in february the working groups are on a separate track and as i said i don t believe q separate from the president mr stephanopoulos i don t believe this has been presented to the president q are they considering something that the president q has ruled out q has ruled out i mean will the president consider a vat tax mr stephanopoulos again the working groups have not presented this to the president they have looked at a wide range of options i suppose that if an argument is made he will clearly listen to it that does not mean he has decided to do it q can we put this another way in his answer in ohio he looked at the vat in terms of restructuring the whole tax system under those that was the circumstance that he said it might be considered at some future point is that no longer the case or is that the only way that he can see a vat emerging mr stephanopoulos i guess i m not sure exactly what you re asking q he talked about the vat in the context of a restructured tax system not as a specific way to finance health care for example q or anything else q or anything else q it was always in the context of substituting for other taxes at a time of a dramatic overhaul of the whole tax system mr stephanopoulos right q has that change too q is that still his view mr stephanopoulos i haven t spoken about those specific comments i think i can just go back to it are the working groups have they examined the possibility of a vat yes they have q certainly we re looking at a vat she said mr stephanopoulos they have examined the possibility of a vat has it been presented to the president has he made a decision no he has not q what kind of a deal do you have when you ve got the president s appointed task force obviously not oblivious to his ruling something out except in the context of some huge down the line reform goes ahead on its own and considers a tax which he has specifically ruled out in any context other than much later and then goes ahead and announces that that s what they re looking at is the president concerned about that sort of thing mr stephanopoulos i think that the president s concern is to make sure he gets the best health care proposal possible he s concerned with making sure that they have the most thorough process for examining all the possible alternatives all the different alternatives if a decision is made to go forward with something like that it s certainly something the president will explain and justify but no decision has been made along those lines q what does it mean exactly though when the president rules something out does it mean it can get back on the table later if a more persuasive argument is made mr stephanopoulos that s just that s indisputably true if you but at the same time he has not ruled it in he has not made a proposal q what makes him open to it now when he wasn t open to it before mr stephanopoulos he s certainly willing to listen to the argument q was he willing to listen to the argument for a short term tax this year and he wasn t willing to listen to it in chilicothe he s now open to it mr stephanopoulos the context of his comments was that it was not something he wanted to be clear that this is not something he was proposing not something he was floating q not something he was considering those are his words it s not something that s now under consideration if we start considering it i ll tell you you re now acknowledging are you not that it is under consideration and mr stephanopoulos i m acknowledging that the task force has studied this proposal i am also stating that the president has not made a decision on it q but the door is open for the president to reconsider including this as part of mr stephanopoulos obviously the working groups are looking at it again but the president has not made a decision q do you know if they will make a presentation on behalf of the vat to him mr stephanopoulos i don t know that i assume that if i don t know what stage they are it in proposing i don t know that they re going to make the conclusion that this is something they should present to him i know this is something the working groups are looking at q do you understand george that none of us are asking these questions in context of a decision that the president has made only about what the president is considering mr stephanopoulos i understand that and i am acknowledging that the working groups have examined the issue of a vat q and the president will consider it mr stephanopoulos i assume that he will consider the argument if it is presented to him q does that mean the president that working groups think that when the president says no he means maybe laughter mr stephanopoulos i think that means that the working groups are trying to do the most thorough job possible q george can i ask you another question about bosnia mr stephanopoulos sure laughter q no he wants us to stay on this q let s do gays in the military laughter q no he got out of that swamp q i think we ve gotten the bottom line on that vat reggie bartholomew your special ambassador in belgrade today said that if the serbs do not accept the agreement that has been worked out quote we will do our part to pursue the lifting of the arms embargo together with our allies that seems to go a bit further than what you ve just said mr stephanopoulos sounds almost exactly what i just said q well do you accept in other words you accept what reggie mr stephanopoulos well the president has said that this is something that s under consideration it is something he will consider if the current actions don t bring the serbs to the table q isn t there some kind of timetable here mr stephanopoulos yes there is a timetable there s going to be a vote on the u n resolution in about days q that s on sanctions that s on tightening the sanctions mr stephanopoulos that s right that s sanctions and we believe that that will ratchet up the pressure and we hope that that will bring the serbs to the table as you know mr bartholomew also met with mr churkin of russia and they are also working on ways to bring the serbs to the table we will continue to pressure them in many different ways and this is one possible option as well q the question is whether there s a timetable for consideration or a vote on a decision on lifting the arms embargo not the sanctions mr stephanopoulos the next vote in the u n is on sanctions as far as i know there are no votes scheduled on lifting the arms embargo but it is something that we have discussed both internally and with our allies q why did reggie bartholomew tell the serbs that the u s would do that what was the point of his telling them that mr stephanopoulos well clearly i mean this is something that s under consideration and this is something that we take quite seriously if they do not come to the table they should know the consequences of failing to come to the table q have they been given a deadline q warren christopher has been saying the same thing and it hasn t seemed to change the serbs behavior in the least why should the serbs take any heed of a threat to lift the arms embargo when so far everything that s been done has had no effect on the fighting in bosnia mr stephanopoulos i just don t accept the premise of your question it has had an effect the embargo is having an effect q what effect mr stephanopoulos if the serbians choose not to heed our warnings then they will face the consequences q what effect has it had in bosnia mr stephanopoulos well the effect that it has had on the serbians it has tightened up they are not getting their shipments through we can brief more fully q in bosnia george in bosnia what effect has it had mr stephanopoulos well it s hard to say if it s stopped the aggression to date that is why we re continuing to press for the serbians to stop but we believe that over time we will continue to weaken the serbs and that will have an effect i m not saying it s going to happen overnight it clearly hasn t happened overnight but we believe that over time the sanctions can weaken the serbs if it fails to work and if the serbs fail to come to the negotiating table we ll move forward with the embargo q isn t there a working deadline george of the th the same date as the u n the scheduled u n vote hasn t the united states said along with many of the other nato allies that if the serbs aren t willing to sign on to the peace accord by then that we ll seek haven t we said that we will seek mr stephanopoulos we ve said continually we re going to q but on that deadline mr stephanopoulos i don t have a specific date but we re going to move forward with the resolution the u n resolution by around that time and if that fails to take effect if that fails to bring the serbs to the table we will clearly consider other actions q isn t this awfully incremental mr stephanopoulos we re taking a step by step approach we re ratcheting up the pressure and we re going to continue to do that q is there a possibility george that by the time all these incremental steps are taken the serbs will have achieved their goals and then what s the purpose mr stephanopoulos i think the purpose is to get the serbs to stop the aggression we are pursuing that goal on many different fronts we are pursuing it through the u n we re pursuing it through direct talks we are pursuing it through tightening the sanctions and we will consider lifting the arms embargo we are turning the screws up on the serbs and we will continue to do that q but if the efforts have been unsuccessful in getting the serbs to stop the aggression how effective will any campaign be to have the serbs give back what they ve gained i mean once they re entrenched mr stephanopoulos i can t speculate on that we re going to continue to press for them to come to the table now we re going to continue to find ways to stop the aggression but i can t see into the future q george on the stimulus package house republicans say they re going to hold a series of town meetings on saturday to try and explain the details of your package they cite polls which show that the more people learn about it the less they like it what s your strategy to counter that mr stephanopoulos the strategy we have is the one we re going to continue as you saw the president today pointed up the very real benefits of the summer jobs program that this package will provide new summer jobs this summer for kids in inner cities and suburbs to do productive work we are also going to point out the benefits of the highway money the investments in highways we re going to point up the benefits of immunization we re going to point up the benefits of head start we are going to say that the republicans have a choice they can take action to create jobs or they can perpetuate the gridlock of the last four years q does it concern you though that the house now the house republicans are after you as well as the senate mr stephanopoulos the house republicans voted against it before they made a mistake then they re making a mistake now q george does it strike anybody in the administration that it s a bit strong to describe as the president did this morning the summer jobs program as quote a reaffirmation of a promise of america mr stephanopoulos not at all i think it s the promise of america to give kids a chance to reach their full potential q government funded jobs mr stephanopoulos to give people a chance to work absolutely that is the promise of america q i want to follow up on something i asked yesterday where does summer jobs where does that figure come from mr stephanopoulos that is on top of i did look at it there are currently summer jobs in the pipeline this will be on top of the so it will be a total of million q the would be created by the stimulus package mr stephanopoulos yes q where does that number come from because we ve been told all along that the stimulus package would create new jobs and according to panetta that breaks down to something like full time jobs and summer jobs mr stephanopoulos yes but the summer that s when you do their full time equivalence i mean individuals will receive jobs this summer when you calculate it for the full time job effect you have to do i don t know what the exact formula is q seven hundred thousand part time jobs mr stephanopoulos or q one to four because it s three months mr stephanopoulos thank you q can i follow up on that did the president misspeak this morning when he said that some of the government money for these summer jobs will pay for private for kids to work in the private sector mr stephanopoulos not necessarily i mean i think that there will be grants available that s one of the ways that you pay for the jobs at the same time he s also issued a challenge to the private sector to hire kids on their own as well q tax dollars for instance would pay for kids to work at time warner mr stephanopoulos i think the time warner is actually somebody coming forward and actually doing a grant that s going to be the bulk of it there could be isolated instances though where there would be grants to businesses q has the president spoken with any senate republicans this week mr stephanopoulos no but there s been a lot of contact with senate republicans in the white house q at a lower level but the president hasn t mr stephanopoulos the president has not no q getting any closer to get the votes mr stephanopoulos we re continuing to work on it q anybody leaning your way q on haiti the new york times seems to be reporting something of a breakthrough in aristide s attitude towards the coup leaders can you confirm that there has been this change and what impact will it have on the process and what did pezzullo have to say yesterday in his report mr stephanopoulos pezzullo did brief the principals i can t confirm what s actually happening in the talks i would leave that to the negotiators themselves but mr caputo has returned to haiti we have received a briefing here at the white house from ambassador pezzullo and as we have said time and time again we believe that assurances of security are important to a final resolution to a broader political settlement q george yesterday you offered some selective breakdowns of how the stimulus would impact some states and cities can we get a complete breakdown by state of how these jobs would be impacted mr stephanopoulos i think we have it for most states yes and i think we can get it out q could you make that generally available mr stephanopoulos i believe we can q and could you do it by the component of the stimulus in other words mr stephanopoulos i don t know if we can do i know that we can do it by summer jobs and other jobs i don t know how deeply it can be broken down but clearly we can break it down into summer jobs and other jobs q and can i follow up is this the information that jeff eller and the rest of the white house is using in the ads in the states mr stephanopoulos i don t know if they re ads but they re press releases q can you describe what those press releases contain mr stephanopoulos all we re doing is pointing out the benefits of this package to various states for instance i know that today senator dole is heading up to vermont and new hampshire and i would point out that the stimulus package the jobs package creates jobs in vermont it creates jobs in new hampshire and the people of those states should remind him that this is important q where are the releases going mr stephanopoulos they go to the states q to whom mr stephanopoulos we can get them it s no problem q can we get it q why don t you put them out here as well mr stephanopoulos i think we can q this afternoon would that be possible mr stephanopoulos i ll have to check i don t know but as soon as we can q are you focusing these press releases on states where there are moderate or pragmatic republican senators mr stephanopoulos i think we re trying to get as many as we can it s actually quite difficult to pull this together and we re doing our best we re putting them out as we get them q why are you so closely tracking senator dole s schedule mr stephanopoulos i was just following it q are press releases going along to states where he s visiting mr stephanopoulos i m not sure i think that probably there are press releases going to vermont laughter q will there be a man in a chicken suit waiting laughter q george as the president goes about the business of defending what s in his stimulus package he doesn t address what seems to be the republicans main point that you re funding it with deficit spending rather than if it s so important why not come up with the funding for it seems to be the republican argument and how do you answer that mr stephanopoulos what was answer is we are paying for it over time and if you look at our budget we pay for this package over time we believe right now the economy needs a jump start for jobs q you re not claiming are you that that doesn t add to the deficit this year mr stephanopoulos i m saying we re paying for it over time i didn t say that q i know that george but i mean from the beginning the question we do have annual budgets and things deficit spending will pay for that this year will it not mr stephanopoulos this year they clearly will but over time our budget fully pays for this program q what you re saying is that there are savings that would cover this if it were this year in future years mr stephanopoulos absolutely that s exactly what i said q i know that but there is going to be outstanding debt it will add to the national debt from this year mr stephanopoulos no we re reducing the deficit by billion billion over the next four years q you mean you re reducing it below what it would have been mr stephanopoulos exactly q in fact you re adding a very large amount to the national debt over the period of mr stephanopoulos but we re reducing it far more from what it would have been that s true q washington type reduction laughter q you re getting to be a grumpy old man q george has any decision been made about the white house or the president s participation in the gay rights march coming up in a week and a half mr stephanopoulos we re working on the president s schedule now i believe he s going to be at the senate democratic retreat in jamestown that weekend q will he address it by phone mr stephanopoulos i don t know about that it s a little far out but i believe he s going to be in the senate retreat q so will he have the leaders in a day or two before the speech mr stephanopoulos i don t know i would expect that at some point he would meet with the leaders of some of these groups i don t know the schedule on it though q will there be an aids czar appointed prior to or in conjunction with the event mr stephanopoulos i m just not sure q april nd is earth day what is the president going to do to mark that and is it the case that he is going to sign the biodiversity treaty that day mr stephanopoulos i know there s been some work on the biodiversity treaty i don t know about signing it that day but i would expect he ll have a statement on earth day or right around then q where is the work on the biodiversity treaty mr stephanopoulos i d have to check with katie mcginty i just know that there s been some work done but i don t know exactly what q when is earth day mr stephanopoulos the nd i think q why is it you know that he is going to have a statement on earth day but you don t know if he s going to have a statement on the gay rights march mr stephanopoulos i said i don t know if he s going to meet or when he s going to meet q do you have a statement on the gay rights march mr stephanopoulos i don t actually no i wouldn t be surprised if he did though q do you have some details on the miyazawa visit mr stephanopoulos it s a working visit on friday and the president is looking forward to that in discussing a number of issues including russian aid and the japanese stimulus package and the trade issues between the two countries q there was some expectations that a second aid package to russia was going to be unveiled at the g meeting and if i understand it hasn t happened why is that or what s the status on that mr stephanopoulos the g meeting is still going on and as you know secretaries bentsen and christopher have talked about the outlines of a possible package but we re going to continue to consult with congress and our g allies on that q we will not then make any kind of announcement during the two day meeting mr stephanopoulos the meeting s not over yet q is that when you re going to make one mr stephanopoulos i m not ruling out the possibility q the president s going to announce it tomorrow q bentsen said that q yes bentsen said it would be tomorrow q so did christopher mr stephanopoulos i d have to look at that but i believe it is more likely that the announcement will come out of tokyo q george has there been further consideration here about going to sending the president out to los angeles mr stephanopoulos i don t know that there s it s not something we ve ruled out we don t have a date set for it q george you all have a position or do you support immigration s plan to settle iraqi prisoners in the united states mr stephanopoulos it s the first i ve heard of it q george there was a report today about the q fortunately laughter q about the pace of appointments and says that president clinton is behind president bush in the number of positions that people have been nominated for are you going to speed up the pace of nominations or where do you stand with it mr stephanopoulos we filled of the president s appointments and it s broken down we have schedule c noncareer ses pas full time i m not sure what that means laughter pa full time and this is about the same it s about the same pace of president bush obviously as you move along farther once you each level of appointment actually has a multiplier effect and frees up far more appointments so we expect the process to speed up but we re at the pace of bush obviously we d like to get these done as quickly as possible i would point out that the fbi background checks and the background check is far more comprehensive and it takes more time than our predecessors and that is part of the holdup but we re working on it q is that because of nannygate mr stephanopoulos i think that s an awful big part of it yes q in the story this morning you were at approximately the same pace as bush in making appointments but way behind in winning confirmations mr stephanopoulos that s where the background checks comes into play that s the problem q that s the background checks problem because i mean you have a democratic senate mr stephanopoulos no that s not the you make the appointments and then it takes quite a bit of time to fill out all the forms and have the background checks done that s exactly where the problem is q what s the president doing this afternoon and what s on the plan for tomorrow mr stephanopoulos he s got some meetings just office meetings this afternoon for the most part on a variety of issues that probably a half dozen different issues and then he ll be tomorrow we ll have an event probably again focused on the stimulus and jobs package out of here at the white house and friday is the miyazawa meeting q will you be releasing his tax return tomorrow george mr stephanopoulos either tomorrow or friday q is there going to be a pre briefing regarding the japanese prime minister s visit tomorrow mr stephanopoulos i don t know about tomorrow but we ll probably get something done as we usually do for these visits q was reverend jackson here this morning and do you know what that was about mr stephanopoulos he was here he met with a group of us here at the white house including mack mclarty q who q reverend jackson mr stephanopoulos reverend jackson mack mclarty me gene sperling bruce reed jeff watson mark gearan q talking about haiti mr stephanopoulos we talked about general urban policy he is about to go to los angeles he was just back from mississippi where we had a good victory last night and he s going on to los angeles q did he request the meeting mr stephanopoulos actually no he s in continual contact with the president he had written a letter on a variety of issues and so we asked him to come in and talk about it q george dole is having a fundraiser for jeffords tonight in vermont have you guys been in contact with jeffords at all on this mr stephanopoulos i think there s been some contact sure q can you tell us about the contacts mr stephanopoulos i m not sure q do you know who contacted him or what was said mr stephanopoulos i know that howard paster talked to him and they just has a general talk about the package q and did he express his support for it now or is he mr stephanopoulos i can t divulge the details of the conversation but there have been conversations q the l a times is reporting that abortion elective abortions is likely to be included in the basic health care package is this something the president is considering mr stephanopoulos again q along with the vat laughter mr stephanopoulos it s certainly something that s been looked at but no decisions have been made q what was the question mr stephanopoulos the l a times story on whether abortions will be covered by the president s health plan q did the president in his meeting did you in your meeting with reverend jackson ask his advice solicit his advice about what kind of stance the white house should take in the wake of the verdict in l a mr stephanopoulos well we certainly talked about the situation in los angeles and the long term prospects for economic development and other issues q for instance did you discuss whether it would be helpful for the president to go there or not mr stephanopoulos well we discussed a wide range of issues related to los angeles that was certainly one of them q letting you perhaps go out on the way you came in i need to go back to bosnia just for a second and ask mr stephanopoulos oh good q your reaction to margaret thatcher s comments that you re just sitting by and watching a massacre mr stephanopoulos well we ve been pushing very hard on a number of fronts for more aggressive action we will continue to do that q can you tell us if you ve made any progress in your talks on the stimulus package getting a compromise i mean we don t have any feel except talks are ongoing have you talked to like people or mr stephanopoulos i don t know the numbers we ve talked to several people and we ve had wide ranging sessions q anyone leaning your way mr stephanopoulos i can t get into that we re just going to keep working through tuesday the press thank you end p m edt
