clinton am press briefing by dee dee myers the white house office of the press secretary for immediate release april press briefing by dee dee myers the briefing room a m edt q why was the a m postponed ms myers just due to scheduling conflicts so as we put out the president will meet with the leaders of the national police organizations at p m in the rose garden as opposed to a m the only other things on his schedule today are at a m he ll meet with general vessey who as you know is on his way to vietnam to continue working on the mia pow issue at p m he ll have lunch with the vice president in the oval office and at p m he ll meet with the police organizations then from p m to p m he ll do his weekly photos with the various groups q a photo op with vessey ms myers there s no coverage on the vessey meeting q why ms myers why it s a closed meeting q what about the lunch ms myers the lunch no there s no coverage q is he meeting with any congress people today ms myers nothing scheduled q there are no meetings ms myers there are no congressional meetings today no q has the president been given any information by the pentagon or reached any conclusion about the validity of this report from hanoi any instructions to vessey on how to deal with the vietnamese on that subject ms myers well clearly the report is the first order of business it s high on the agenda on something that they ll discuss i think the president and general vessey will discuss the parameters of his visit to vietnam today but the president hasn t drawn any conclusions about the report yet certainly it s something that he wants general vessey to talk with the vietnamese about first q did the president talk with any republican senators yesterday about the stimulus package ms myers he spoke with senator dole q how many times ms myers i believe once during the day and once last night q what was the outcome of that ms myers they re continuing to work toward some kind of an agreement on a jobs package q is it your impression that senator dole is in any way flexible on this ms myers well i think we re hopeful that we re going to get some kind of jobs package through the senate and we ll continue to work with senator dole and others until we reach some kind of an agreement q did they discuss the vat tax ms myers i don t know if that came up q can you check that ms myers sure q so what are they is the president offering to scale down his program is that what he s trying to do buy it down to where dole will sign on ms myers well he s trying to protect as much of it as he can but it s important to him to get some kind of a jobs package through the senate and through congress now and as soon as we reach some conclusions on that we ll let you know but at the moment he s continuing to consult with members of congress including obviously senator dole q is he talking to anybody else ms myers i don t believe he talked to any other republicans yesterday q is he talking to anybody today ms myers i don t think anything is scheduled but i wouldn t rule it out q we were led to believe that the president called mr dole on the subject of russian aid and that bob dole brought the conversation around to stimulus package is that correct ms myers i think the president has contacted several people on russian aid i think that it was always expected that the stimulus package or the jobs package will be part of any conversation he would have with senator dole the primary objective of the conversation was russian aid that was the first order of business but it was both q in the president s mind are they linked politically in that if the republicans continue to reject the stimulus package he thinks it will be harder to sell russian aid to the american people has he made that argument ms myers i can t talk about specifically what arguments he might have made the president is obviously committed to both he liked to see a jobs package to the american people first but as you know we outlined the details of additional russian aid last night in tokyo q but does the president believe that the stimulus package will make it more difficult to persuade americans to vote for russian to accept a vote for russian aid ms myers i think that the president is going to continue to work to pass the stimulus package to pass a jobs package and we re still hopeful that we ll get some kind of jobs package through the congress q is it fair to say that the president is negotiating now with dole ms myers he s discussing options with him q on the stimulus is it your understanding that over the break some democrats themselves have left the support that they had earlier for the package the stimulus package ms myers i think we still have wide support in the senate for the jobs package q but specifically that you ve lost democrats other than shelby ms myers i don t believe so there hasn t been a vote q what about kohl q kohl and feingold ms myers there hasn t been a vote yet and we ll continue to work with senators to try to get a majority to try to bring the package to a vote because we believe that a majority of the members of the united states senate support the package q if you re weren t worried about kohl and feingold why did george mention milwaukee projects the other day ms myers i think george pointed out a number of projects in a number of states that stand to be funded or to lose funding if this jobs package doesn t pass q no democrats laughter ms myers i ll let you draw your own conclusions q does he plan to talk to dole again today or any other republicans again today ms myers there s nothing specifically scheduled but again i wouldn t rule it out q does he plan to put out any more press releases to any other states today ms myers what we ve done is we re in the process of breaking down the benefits of the jobs package state by state i think it s entirely feasible that as we sort of are able to sum those up we ll send out press releases to the various states that suggest how their states would benefit from this package q will you share those with us ms myers sure as we did yesterday q do you have copies of the ones you sent ms myers yes we made those available yesterday and we certainly can continue to provide them today q dee dee since yesterday s questions and subsequent stories about the vat what further consideration of this issue has been given ms myers nothing s changed since yesterday i think the president commented on it this morning to say only that it was something he knew was being considered by the task force and that he has not made a decision on and i don t think we have anything to add to that q but he also said that business and labor groups are telling him they support it can you tell us ms myers i think that there has been i m not going to speculate on who supports it i think the president said that there has been some support among business and labor groups i don t think he said he was directly contacted by them q are we to take that to mean that the administration has sounded out business and labor groups on this ms myers i think there s been plenty of public discourse on this over the years and even recently but i don t think i want to add to that q in february though the president said that this was something to be considered or years down the road what has happened between then and now to cause this administration to change its mind ms myers i think as we said yesterday it is something that the working groups are looking at they re considering a wide variety of options on everything from funding to specific options that will be covered by the president s health care plan the president has not taken it up yet has not made a decision on it and beyond that i don t have anything to add q you haven t answered the question it wasn t being considered by anyone in the white house after the president s comments in february and george reaffirmed that in a briefing q and then suddenly q what happened ms myers the working groups as we have said throughout we instructed to consider a wide variety of options across the board and one of the things that has been talked about and that they are clearly considering is some kind of a value added tax q but the president himself took this off the table dee dee and suddenly it reappears and this goes to the credibility of this administration in a way what has happened in the meantime ms myers the president has not looked at this it hasn t been presented to him again yet the working groups are looking at it as they re looking at a wide variety of options and no decisions have been made q and it raises the question of how independently the task force is working ms myers the task force was instructed to consider all options and they ve taken that mandate seriously and they re considering all options q but that s not the impression that the president left in february the impression he left was that this was something that was long range to be looked at years down the road the clear implication of his remarks was that this was something that was not on the table not an option q if it changes i ll tell you q bring him on q and you repeatedly referred to the president s remarks telling us that those were still in operation ms myers it s changed and we told you laughter q but that s what alice rivlin s comments and donna shalala comments were about i mean that seemed like an orchestrated effort because you have two independent cabinet officers ms myers i wouldn t no alice rivlin s not a cabinet member first of all second of all it was not orchestrated but clearly they both said yesterday and in the last couple of days that it s something that s being looked at we confirmed that yesterday and i don t have anything to add to that q is it because he has very few options q is this something that it will be incumbent upon the task force to convince the president about in other words has the president himself personally ruled it out and it s now up to the task force to convince him to put it back on the table or is it in fact back on the table having been placed there by discussions with the president ms myers it is not the working group s mission at this point to convince the president of anything it is their mission to put before him his options and to explain the benefits and the costs and the basic pros and cons of each of those options i think that they will certainly present the vat to him in that context and at this point he s not that presentation has not been made but it s something that he will hear and he has not made a decision on q they will present it to him as one of his options though he specifically ruled it out ms myers correct q dee dee is this more than a trial balloon is this a serious consideration that the working groups are giving to this form of taxation ms myers it s simply a statement of fact the working groups are considering a wide variety of options on a number of issues relating to health care reform one of the options that they re looking at is the vat q dee dee when the working groups were examining this possibility was this on the table during the same time period that you were telling us that it was not ms myers i don t know what the specific timing of their drafting of options is i don t know q who was telling you that it was not under consideration ms myers i was referring back to the president s comments q have they discovered that the sin taxes won t raise enough money to fund the core benefit package ms myers no there s no decisions that have been made on how to pay for the health care plan q i m asking whether the projections ms myers there s a number of options depending on how the plan is structured you can t decide how much the plan is going to cost until you decide what the plan is going to look like and so you can t discuss what financing options have been ruled in our out until you know q dee dee we ve been told that they have a computer models on a number of possible packages ms myers correct q the question is whether they have now determined whether sin taxes would not produce enough money for even the barest minimum package that is not a very difficult computation ms myers it is a question that you know that we re not going to answer until there s a number of options being considered it depends on how the package is structured the exact details of the package and the financing mechanisms used to pay for them are all among the decisions that have yet to be made q and when the president has been meeting with health care his health care advisors which we are told he has been doing ms myers correct q they have never once said to him these are your funding options including the vat he has never heard the word vat in his ms myers i am not going to comment on the specific nature of the daily they re not daily but the quasi regular briefings q well you have ms myers i have not other than to say that he s not considered the vat and i think that is a true statement q no but you said that it has not been presented to him as an option ms myers correct q that doesn t mean he hasn t heard about it ms myers i m not going to get into the details of what s discussed i think that statement stands for itself q specific dee dee when you say he hasn t looked at it do you mean that he hasn t looked at it in terms of paying for medical coverage or hasn t looked at it in general because back in chilicothe he was very specific in defining how it works what the advantages are the whole thing it sounds like ms myers but that was i think in chilicothe if you go back to his remarks there it was a broader philosophical discussion of the tax structure and i think the comments were generally in reference to the overall economic plan but clearly it s something that he s thought about in the broad context i mean that was clear in chilicothe what i m saying is that in the process of the working groups it s something that he hasn t considered yet it s something that the working groups will present to him among the number of options and that no decisions have been made and i m not going to comment any further on the details of the meetings where health care issues are being discussed q it s your statement from this podium that no discussion of this has taken place you say that no option that the option has not been presented to him ms myers that is correct q do you stand by does the white house still stand by george s statement in march that this will not be in the proposal ms myers no decisions have been made we have nothing to add to what s already been said q let me follow up here do you stand by what rivlin said yesterday that if any kind of vat were to be used or considered that other changes to the tax code would have to be made so that it would be less regressive ms myers i m not going to comment any further on what might happen if q but do you stand by the previous conversations in february that if there were to be a vat i think the president said you d exclude food and energy ms myers i m not going to comment on the specific structure of a decision that hasn t been made q was the president aware prior to donna shalala s comments yesterday that this was under consideration by the working groups ms myers i don t know specifically what q could you check for us because that s a real important credibility question ms myers sure q since the task force was brought together this issue has been discussed at the beginning and throughout as one fairly painless way to raise a lot of money were you all kept in the dark was the press office kept in the dark over the past month and a half when you ve been denying that a vat tax would be considered that it was actually on the table over there as an option ms myers i think we ve said all that we have to say it is something the working groups are looking at the president has not made a decision about it yet and beyond that i have nothing to add q well sorry dee dee there are still a couple of questions that we are going to have to ask because we have a problem with credibility here yours primarily what we re asking is if you all were not told at all that this thing was being considered while you were coming out here and telling us that it was not or if it s a case that you were coming out here and deliberately misleading us ms myers i don t believe that anyone has ever come out here and deliberately misled you from this podium ever ever q has anyone tried to shade it a little bit to indicate something has anybody told anybody to come out ms myers we re not trying to shade answers or deliberately mislead anybody i ve said what i have to say about this issue q all we were trying to find out ms myers i understand what you re trying to find out and i ve given you the answers helen q we re trying to find out what changed what made it an option again that s the ms myers the working groups were given a broad mandate to investigate all options and they are doing that q yes but it wasn t an option before how can you investigate it if the president has taken it off the table ms myers it is something that they re obviously considering and the president has not made a decision on q yes but he took it off the table in february ms myers working groups are considering it they ll present it to the president at some point and he ll make a decision q why would they consider it if he has taken it off the table ms myers it s clearly on the table q yes but he took it off the table did he change his mind ms myers it s back on the table bill q did he change his mind ms myers he said this morning that he hasn t made a decision about it he obviously knows that it s on the table it s something that he will look at at some and when we have a decision on this we ll let you know q so he must have changed his mind right ms myers at some point it will be looked at i mean q dee dee there s like two options either he changed his mind or the working groups think they re authority exceeds the president s ms myers the working groups were given a broad mandate to look at all options they ve done that q are you going to put out his income tax ms myers yes there will be something available on his income tax probably later this afternoon his return will be available q will there be any kind of briefing to go through it ms myers no nothing s planned i think someone will be available probably not in a briefing setting but to walk you through the questions q we re used to be walked line by line through the presidential tax forms ms myers i ve seen those briefings laughter q could we have one ms myers no i don t think there will be any kind of a formal briefing but there will be somebody available to answer your questions about it q did they file a joint form ms myers yes q when did he file it ms myers i believe it s being filed today q dee dee is there going to be a backgrounder for miyazawa ms myers no there will be a readout after the meeting q no backgrounder today ms myers no backgrounder today q this is complicated stuff we need help laughter ms myers we can t give you taxes and miyazawa all in one day it s too confusing laughter q vance and owen have opened the doors on the use of force in bosnia they ve both said that a they never ruled it out and b it might be necessary now does that influence your thinking on whether or not to change your approach ms myers there s been no change in our policy towards bosnia we have always said that we d consider q but does that impact upon your decision are they people whose opinions would carry weight with you ms myers they re people whose opinions carry weight certainly i mean the president supports the process that they ve initiated but there s been no change in our policy for bosnia although we re considering a number of options right now if the serbs don t come back to the negotiating table if they don t sign on to some kind of an agreement we will consider additional options which we ve been saying regularly q one follow up question then we cannot get a straight answer from anyone in the administration why do you not set a deadline for the serbs can you tell us the strategic or tactical reasons for not giving them a deadline to come to the table ms myers we re continuing to put pressure on them every day q which doesn t work so ms myers well we think it is having some effect we re going to continue to tighten sanctions as you know we support the omnibus resolution we expect that to come to a vote on the th q you say it s having an effect can you give us any documentation ms myers i d be happy to provide somebody to talk to you about the impact of the sanctions and things like that q there s been no you have not been able to provide anybody who can tell us that the sanctions have had any effect in bosnia serbia yes in bosnia no ms myers i think that they ve had effect in serbia and we think they ve had some effect in bosnia and again i ll be happy to provide somebody to walk you through the details of that if you d like q we would like to hear from someone who can show us what the effect has been in bosnia we had the briefing on all of the terrible things that are happening in belgrade but we haven t seen anything that indicates an impact on the fighting can you provide something along those lines ms myers i will see what i can get you q on the extra russian aid that christopher announced this morning where is that money coming from ms myers we ll have to work with congress on the details of that package q so that would be new money that you would hope to get ms myers yes that s new money in addition to the billion announced in vancouver so i assume that you all have seen the billion package that was announced this morning in tokyo by secretary christopher q isn t there a concern though about offering something which you have to get in congress i mean that was the concern with vancouver you didn t want to do that ms myers the concern with vancouver was to do something immediately which required money that was already approved in the fiscal budget what we re looking at now is a little bit longer term plan to build on top of the billion that we announced in vancouver this clearly will require congressional approval or some of it will anyway and we re going to continue to work with congress to make that happen q to what extent has that been vetted or agreed to by congress ms myers the president has had a number of conversations with members and will continue to work with them as this process moves forward q was christopher able to put this package out with a fair degree of understanding that you will be able to get it through congress ms myers it was created in consultation with congress q in meeting with the law enforcement officials is that does that have a set speech and a goal a direction ms myers yes the president will talk about and the law enforcement organizations are endorsing the president s jobs package they believe particularly the summer jobs package will help give kids something to do q who are they ms myers it s members or leadership from three organizations napo which is the national association of police organizations ibpo which is the international brotherhood of police organizations i believe and iupa which is the international union of police associations q will the fbi chief be there ms myers the fbi chief no q or any other federal law enforcement officials ms myers no it will be the president and these national law enforcement organization leaders q does the billion announced today include the million that s in the fy budget for disarmament ms myers no the nunn lugar money is separate q so this would be the million that s in the budget already plus another billion ms myers i believe all of this is on top of the million already in the budget q is this going to be part of the supplemental or fiscal ms myers we ll work with congress on the exact funding mechanism on exactly how this will be paid for q this billion on top of ms myers on top of million on top of the million nunn lugar money we announced earlier q and this is what prompted the president to call bob dole it was on this tranche not on the previous money he was calling bob dole ms myers correct q is there a briefing on miyazawa ms myers there will be a readout after the meeting with miyazawa tomorrow q dee dee on a totally unrelated matter some republicans who are active in the u s chamber of commerce are complaining about this new cozy relationship between the white house and the chamber of commerce there are the town hall meeting the other night the satellite and all of this relationship does the white house feel that you re getting too close to these chambers of commerce ms myers that s an interesting charge laughter after how many years of democrats being accused of not paying any attention to the chambers now there are those who would accuse us of being too close i think that s interesting but no we re thrilled by the support we ve received from the national chamber and local chambers across the country and we ll continue to work with them on this and other initiatives q what s the status of the president thinking about going to this democratic retreat ms myers it s on his calendar i think he ll almost certainly go q all three days ms myers we haven t figured out exactly when he ll be there yet q is it open to coverage ms myers no i believe the whole thing is closed q is he going to have any kind of address statement anything at all on the gay rights march on the th ms myers we re still looking at that we haven t made a final decision about how we ll who will make a statement or what q any meetings scheduled with any of the leaders ms myers nothing is scheduled but i wouldn t rule it out q what about an aids czar ms myers it s coming q anything on the weekend q there s been a suggestion that he s going to this retreat to avoid having to participate in the gay rights or appear or have any involvement in the gay rights march ms myers no i think this is something he s been discussing for a long time appearing at the senate democratic retreat q the weekend ms myers weekend don t know the only thing on right now is the radio address on saturday q any travel plans ms myers if it changes none right now q he s not going to be off campaigning for his stimulus package ms myers no specific plans right now q what about mid week anything likely ms myers it s possible yes i think it s likely that we ll travel next week certainly the weekend q has he called thurmond about his daughter ms myers i don t know i ll check q going to name a drug czar this weekend ms myers this weekend i don t believe so q and the radio address on saturday is that going to be focused on the stimulus package ms myers i m sure it will the press thank you end a m edt
