From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:jcma@REAGAN.AI.MIT.EDU  Thu May 20 16:53:17 1993
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 16:37-0400
From: The White House <75300.3115@compuserve.com>
To: Clinton-News-Distribution@campaign92.org
Subject: President's Remarks in Q&A with the Press  5.20.93

 

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    May 20, 1993

	     
                       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                        IN Q&A WITH THE PRESS
	     
                            The South Lawn 

12:50 P.M. EDT

	     
	     Q	  Mr. President, can you talk to us?
	     
	     Q	  Can you accept Senator Boren's entitlement cuts?
	     
	     Q	  What's your reaction to Senator Boren's compromise 
with Danforth?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, my first reaction was that it was 
a huge shift in lowering taxes on people with incomes above $100,000 
and hurting people, both elderly people and working people just 
barely above the poverty line.  It's basically a $40 billion shift 
away from wealthy Americans right on to people just above the poverty 
line -- the elderly and the working poor.  So I don't think that's -- 
I don't support that.  I think that's a mistake.
	     
	     Q	  Would you rule out that kind of compromise to get 
rid of the energy tax?
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  I think that that is not a good thing to 
do, if you read the details of it.  Obviously, the main purpose of 
some of them is to do away with the BTU tax; but the mechanics shift 
over $40 billion away from people with incomes above $135,000 down to 
people -- elderly and working people just barely above the poverty 
line.  I don't think that's good.  There is also another provision 
which, if it's implemented in the way they propose, would continue to 
shift health care costs onto private citizens and private employers, 
which would hurt the economy and hurt jobs.  So those are the two 
things which concern me.  
	     
	     Otherwise, I'm glad to have people talking and coming up 
with new ideas.  But those are bad things.
	     
	     Q	     have you essentially heard enough -- 
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  I can just tell you what -- I've given 
you my answer.  I don't think we should be -- make -- look, we had 12 
years where we made this economy more unequal and unfair.  And to 
move $40 billion off of upper income people to people barely above 
the poverty line it seems to me is not a good way to go.
	     

                                 END12:55 P.M. EDT