For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 2, 2001
Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
- President to Meet with Irish Prime Minister
- Personnel
Announcements
- Alternative Minimum
Tax (AMT)
- Defense
Spending
- Staffing/Appointments
- Visit of
President Flores of El Salvador
- Tax
Surplus
- Tax
Plan
- Presidential
Travel
- Parris Glendening's
Statement/The Washington Post
- Camp
David
- Ariel
Sharon
- Chairman
Greenspan's Comments
- Foreign Policy/The
Balkans
- Richard Cohen/The Washington
Post
- USS Reagan
Dedication
- NATO Secretary
Visit
12:41 P.M. EST
MR. FLEISCHER: Good
afternoon. Let me begin with a few
announcements. Foreign visitor. President Bush
and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will meet at the White House on
March 16th on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. They will mark
the enormous contributions to America made by the Irish
people. The two leaders will review ongoing ties, including
the strong interest of the United States in supporting the Northern
Ireland peace process.
Personnel. President Bush today
announced his intention to nominate two individuals to serve in his
administration. We'll have the paper out on this
shortly. The President intends to nominate Chris Spear to be
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy and he intends to nominate John
B. Taylor to be Under Secretary of the Treasury for International
Affairs.
And with that, I'm all yours.
Q On the alternative
minimum tax, what is the President proposing to do about a problem that
a lot of people in Congress are looking at, and say will be exacerbated
considerably by the President's tax proposal, that more people will
fall under the alternative minimum tax, and it's expensive to fix.
MR. FLEISCHER: The President is
concerned about the alternative minimum tax, and that is why his
proposal includes $60 billion worth of relief from the alternative
minimum tax. He does that -- that way, people who receive
the benefit of the new child credit, going from $500 to $1,000, will
not lose it, particularly for middle-income Americans, will not lose
it.
The alternative minimum tax is a problem that
will confront policy makers increasingly in later years, and that is
why the President believes very strongly that after this tax package is
taken care of, he will want to work with the Congress in taking a look
at subsequent tax packages to address AMT.
Q So, what the White
House is telling the American people is, $1.6 trillion isn't enough to
fix the tax cut.
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I do find it
notable that many people on the Hill who are criticizing the
President's plan for being too big -- will very quickly say, but then
we need to add $200 billion to it to address the alternative minimum
tax problem.
Q But we do, right?
MR. FLEISCHER: And it's a problem
that's going to grow over time. Right now, the alternative minimum tax
problem is predominantly a problem for more upper-income taxpayers than
middle-income taxpayers. And that's why the President's
proposal addresses it for those middle income taxpayers by taking into
account the effect of the AMT on child credit. And that's
why he has $60 billion worth of relief in there.
The basic problem with the AMT is it wasn't
indexed when it was increased in 1993, in the Tax Act of
1993. That's the principal cause of the growing AMT
problem. The biggest problem the AMT will create is still
somewhat down the road, in terms of the number of
years. Each year, an increasing number of Americans will
fall into the AMT problem. And that's why the President
addresses it now, with $60 billion this year, and he is willing to work
with the Congress subsequent to that.
Q One more
question. Would it be fair, then, for Americans when they
think about tax policy in the Bush administration to think in terms of
more than $1.6 trillion, because eventually, you guys are going to
tackle this?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, certainly for
this year the correct figure is $1.6 trillion. That's what
the President believes in, that's what the President will fight
for. But he is elected to a four-year term, and the
President is going to be interested in additional tax relief, but
that's down the road.
Q Ari, to follow up on
where you said $1.6 trillion for this year -- if they get this tax
package done by the August recess, say that you would not support
further tax cuts in the fall?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's for this
calendar year. The President's tax plan is for this calendar
year -- $1.6 trillion over 10 years to reduce marginal income tax
rates, double the child credit from $500 to $1,000, repeal the estate
tax, reduce the marriage penalty, provide $60 billion worth of
alternative minimum tax relief. Those are the core
components of the President's plan, and that is all in this year's tax
package.
Q In this year's tax
package, but when you -- you mentioned yourself subsequent tax packages
that might address the AMT. Could that happen this year
potentially?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, I think we'll
stick with one major tax bill at a time here.
Q On defense spending,
I know we visited this issue several times in the past five
weeks. But yesterday at his briefing, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld tossed the hot potato back to the President, saying it's the
President's budget. And yet, as you know, there are senior
military people and experts outside the Pentagon who say that the
military can't wait, that it needs an infusion of money right now to
keep from cannibalizing equipment, and we're talking about
billions. Is the President in a way waffling on his campaign
promise, or stalling, and is there any chance that he will add money to
his budget now or at least a supplemental before the full review is
completed?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, I think the
President has been crystal clear on this point; so, too, has the
Secretary of Defense and they stand together. And that is -- and the
President said this in his speech on Tuesday night, that we will not
let defense budgets drive defense strategy. We will have a
defense strategy that drives a defense budget. And that's
why he's directed the Secretary of Defense to undertake the force
structure review, which the Defense Department is in the middle of
now. And they will continue to review our nation's military
priorities and needs, and once the review is complete, we'll have more
to say.
Q A quick follow up, if
I may. The Secretary also said that he's having difficulty
getting his people in place, a lot of the people that would be doing
this review. Is there any speed- up attempt going to be made
to get people cleared through the Senate?
MR. FLEISCHER: Pleased to note this
week that the staff -- the Senate confirmed staff at the Pentagon
doubled, this week alone. They now have two. And
we have named several names. As you just heard, I named two
more people this morning, to a host of positions. And as
you've been able to notice, just from the pattern, we have increasingly
accelerated the number of nominations we've been
announcing. And we will look forward to working with the
Senate to assure prompt consideration and confirmation of all the
names.
Q What about a press
spokesman at the Pentagon? Anybody in line yet?
MR. FLEISCHER: When we have
something to announce, we will announce it.
Q Ari, speaking of
foreign visitors, I understand that the President is going to receive
the President of El Salvador.
MR. FLEISCHER: That's correct, this
afternoon.
Q Can you give us the
agenda?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President --
President Bush and President Flores of El Salvador will talk about, of
course, the devastating earthquake that took place in El Salvador in
January and February, and you will hear -- President Bush will express
his desire to help the people of El Salvador to recover from the
earthquake; will, of course, want to listen to any issues on the mind
of President Flores.
Q Is that going to be
--
MR. FLEISCHER: I think you can
anticipate a written statement from President Bush following the
meeting.
Q Is this going to be a
covered meeting, pool or anything?
MS. COUNTRYMAN: I think we'll
release an official photo.
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, as I just
indicated, we'll have a printed statement following the meeting.
Q Will he come out to
the stakeout?
MR. FLEISCHER: President Flores, I
believe, will be coming out to the stakeout following the meeting.
Q Do we expect any
announcement of increased U.S. aid to El Salvador coming out of this
meeting?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think we need to
allow the two Presidents to meet.
Q Ari, what's wrong
with the Democrats' idea of splitting the surplus into three equal
slices? One would go for the tax cut; other, paying off the
debt, fixing Social Security, Medicare; the third would go for other
particular priorities, such as education or defense? Why
isn't this a reasonable idea?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think that's a
good question. The approach that President Bush took in
designing his tax plan and his education plan and his pay down the debt
plan and his education plan, is to identify the nation's needs and to
fully fund them. And that is why he proposed an 11-percent
increase, the largest increase of any item in the budget, for
education, for example.
That's why he proposed the tax cut that he did
at the size that he did. He wants to lower marginal income
tax rates for all Americans, double the child credit.
I think the difference between his approach
and the Democrat one-third, one-third, one-third approach is, the
President's approach is based on addressing and meeting
priorities. The Democrat approach is a little more
arbitrary. It's almost -- the President said that he didn't
want to throw a dart at the board and come up with arbitrary
numbers. And I submit, one-third, one-third, one-third is
not an approach that measures the needs and the priorities; it's a more
arbitrary formula.
Q Does that mean that
the Democratic plan is just as on the table as the President's plan and
they might meet in the middle, as they refer to it in the Tuesday
response?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think it
certainly is on the table, to the degree that it was offered in the
Ways and Means Committee yesterday as a substitute
approach. And I note the three Democrats on the Ways and
Means Committee voted against it. And so it's always on the
table in the Congress, anybody has the right to make amendments and put
their plans forward.
Yesterday, of course, the Ways and Means
Committee passed the President's plan, which would reduce income tax
rates, including the lower rate from 15 to 10 percent -- or 15 to 10
percent over -- on a retroactive basis. And the Democrat
substitute was defeated in the Ways and Means Committee in a bipartisan
vote.
Q Could I just make
sure I'm clear about some numbers you gave out this
morning? You said that the wealthiest 1 percent of income
taxpayers would benefit from 22 percent -- would get 22 percent of the
benefit of the Bush tax cut, and that excludes the estate tax
cut. Is that correct?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's
correct. Also excludes the research and development tax cut,
for example. It's, again, another example of a tax cut that
economists don't know how to distribute it to individuals.
Q Can I follow up on
that? Is the administration at all concerned, you know the
Democrats have been putting forth the argument that the President's
plan is too generous to the rich. Do you think that -- and
that 43 percent number has been out there. Are you concerned
at all that, or is your administration planning to do more to refute
those claims and those numbers?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, I think that
with every passing year -- and we saw this in the course of the
campaign -- those task cuts for the rich arguments become increasingly
stale and not well received by the American people. I think
the American people understand that if you pay income taxes in this
country, you should get income tax relief. The American
people understand that people who pay the most in income taxes should
not be denied tax relief because they were successful and worked hard.
And I think, frankly, that that's a view --
Senator Miller, for example, was -- noted yesterday that he warned his
own party, the Democrat Party, to stay away from that type of argument
because he thought it would not work and it would hurt the Democrats.
So I think there is some division in Democrat
ranks about whether that type of approach, that type of approach that
involves class warfare and pitting one group of Americans against
another, is fruitful or is successful or is even wise.
President Bush's approach is that everybody
who pays income taxes deserves income tax relief, deserves tax
relief. He doesn't think that anybody in this country should
pay more than one-third of their income in taxes. And that's
what is reflected in the plan that he's fighting for.
Q But what's false
about the statement that including the research and development tax
credit, including the estate tax relief, that 43 percent of $1.6
trillion tax cut will go to the wealthiest 1 percent of the taxpayers?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, it's actually
31.5 percent. Let me give you the numbers
again. Under the current income tax code, the top 1 percent
pay 31.5 percent of all income taxes, while they will receive 22
percent of the Bush tax cut. In other words, the top 1
percent pay one-third of the income taxes and they receive about
one-fifth of the tax cut.
And let's do it another way. People
who make between $30,000 and $50,000 a year pay 7 percent of the income
taxes and they will receive 12 percent of the Bush tax
cut. We think that's eminently fair. We think
it's across the board. And, again, it's a fundamental matter
of principle. The President does not think a tax relief should be
denied to people simply because they work hard and are successful.
Q Is this a joint tax
committee?
MR. FLEISCHER: A joint tax
committee, no.
Q But that's income
taxes. When you add in the estate tax relief and the other
tax breaks, what is false about this statement that 43 percent of $1.6
trillion tax cut will go to the top 1 percent of the taxpayers?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, again, there
is no accuracy to the statement that the estate tax benefits only the
top 1 percent. People have no idea who people leave their
money to. To simply guess, out of thin air, that every penny
of the estate tax is left to people in the top 1 percent is as wrong as
wrong can be. People have the right in this country to leave
their money to anybody they want, and that includes people in the 99
percent lower, the top 1 percent.
It's their money; they should be able to leave
it to their children, their grandchildren and their nephews, their
nieces, their favorite charities, their churches, as they see
fit. And I would hardly think that many of the churches, the
synagogues, the nephews and the nieces are all in the top 1
percent. That's erroneous.
Q Do you have a
projection as to how that would be distributed?
MR. FLEISCHER: On the estate tax?
Q Yes.
MR. FLEISCHER: Nothing that I've
seen.
Q Can you tell us --
the President, obviously, is traveling around trying to -- I think as
he put it -- gin up support for the tax cut. Can you give us
a sense of how much he's going to be traveling in the coming days,
where he's going and what the general purpose of that is?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes. If I
tell you now, does that make this the last question?
Q No.
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me give you
travel, and let me give you a little overview for next week, in all
cases. Monday, the University of Oklahoma football and
softball teams will visit the President here at the White
House. The President on Tuesday will visit the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, back in the White House on Tuesday, so it's a day
trip.
On Thursday, the President will travel to
Fargo, North Dakota. He will overnight there. And
the President will travel to South Dakota and to Louisiana on
Friday. And then he will overnight on his ranch in Crawford,
Texas, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. And then we
will travel to Florida on Monday of the following week.
Q Where?
MR. FLEISCHER: Where in
Florida? Panhandle region. I don't know exactly
what town yet. Also just backing up, on Wednesday the
President will host the President of South Korea for a working visit
and lunch. We'll have details on coverage closer to the visit.
Q Why North and South
Dakota?
THE PRESIDENT: It's part of the
President's campaign to bring his budget plan to the people, and to
discuss it with people in a variety of states. And every
day, in every way, whether it's at the White House or it's in travel,
the President looks at how to get his plan across to the voters, so the
voters can get their message to the Senators and the Congressmen, so
they'll vote for it.
Q Those are states with
small populations. Does Senator Daschle's home state have
anything to do with it?
MR. FLEISCHER: In a 50-50 Senate,
there's no such thing as a small populated state.
Q What is Tuesday?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm sorry?
Q Tuesday's event,
Chicago Mercantile Exchange? Is he going to speak
there? More budget?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, he'll speak
there. I'll have a little bit more closer to the event on
speech remarks.
Q Budget-related,
though, we can expect?
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me withhold
until next week.
Q Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: Les?
Q The Washington Post
quotes Maryland Governor Parris Glendening, a Democrat, as saying, and
this is a quote, "I think if I see one more picture of Bush reaching
down and patting little black kids on the head, I'm going to go
absolutely crazy, because the policies he's proposing are an anathema
to African-Americans." Do you and the President think this
is an absolutely non-crazy statement, or not? And I have a
follow up.
MR. FLEISCHER: The President is
going to continue to do what he's been doing. And he made it
crystal clear in his inaugural address, and in every day that he
governs, which is to bring this nation together, to continue his
efforts to reach out. And it's based on the policies that he
ran on, improving education. And that remains his top
priority. And he will continue to do it.
Q What did he think of
Glendening's statement?
MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't discussed
it with him. And I think the President is just focused on
his agenda, and that's what he'll do.
Q Does the President
have full confidence in Mary Frances Berry as chairwoman of the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission, given Harvard Law School attorney Jennifer
Becerra's (phonetic) report in The Weekly Standard of what Ms. Berry
did to the Secretary of State of Florida?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't have any
information for you on that, Les.
Q Ari, why is he going
to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? What will he do there?
MR. FLEISCHER: Ron just asked a
similar question; I'll try to let you know a little bit more about his
remarks closer to it.
Q The Dakotas is not only Daschle, but Kent
Conrad. Is this trip kind of an in-your-face move to those
guys?
MR.
FLEISCHER: No. Certainly, we are going to look to
build support for our agenda everywhere we possibly
can. And, certainly, I have not heard anybody say that it's
not a part of what the President should do, to travel to someone's home
state. Typically, people are very well received.
For example, in Nebraska, when we traveled to
Nebraska, I think people saw how well received we were, and we traveled
there with a Democrat senator, with a Republican
senator. The President is going to continue to do just
that.
Q But that was a
get-able Democratic Senator. I'm not sure Daschle and Conrad
really are.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not going to
start defining who is get-able and who is not get-able. But
the President is going to try to build support for his plan everywhere
he can.
Q Can you give us a
little color on Camp David? He's going there again this
weekend. Do you expect he will keep his pace of going up
every other weekend? Who have been his guests up there
besides Blair, obviously, and what does he like doing up there?
MR. FLEISCHER: He goes up there to
relax. Mrs. Bush will be with him. I think he has
some family friends going up with him as well, I think some relatives,
as I recall. It just is a good chance to get away from the
weekend. And he'll go to Crawford as often as he can,
too. I think you will see on a regular basis a combination
of going to Camp David and going to Crawford on weekends. He
runs up while he's up there, Ron. He gets to run outdoors,
of course. Here at the White House he runs on a treadmill.
When he travels on the road, he'll often run on the treadmill at his
hotel room. So it's an opportunity for him to run outdoors,
which he appreciates. He goes to some movies while he's up
there.
Q There's a theater up
there?
MR. FLEISCHER: There is a movie
theater up there. He went to church services last Sunday up
there.
Q Off campus, or is
there a church on the campus?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, it's on the
grounds.
Q And can we expect
he'll be going to Waco every other weekend?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't want to
predict it. As the President sees fit, with his weekend
schedule, I think it will be somewhat on a regular basis. I
don't want to say what the precise time is, I don't
know. Every week it's different.
Q Ari the hearings last
night, the Burton committee on governmental reform went until 10:30
p.m. Did the President get to watch any of it? Is
he being kept abreast of these hearings?
MR. FLEISCHER: I didn't talk to him
about it today. I don't know if he -- I know his approach to
all those issues, as you've heard me say many times before, is the
President is looking forward, not backward.
Q Yes, but is he
getting a report of what these hearings are producing?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't think
anything that emerges from that is going to change what he does, as far
as trying to improve education or cut taxes, or pay down the
debt. And that's where his focus is.
Q Does the President
plan to meet with Ariel Sharon, if and when he comes in a few
weeks? And what are the President's thoughts now on the
Israeli-Palestinian situation?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, of course
Prime Minister-elect Sharon must still first form his
government. And until that happens, it would be premature to
discuss any type of formal meeting, until that happens. And
as far as the talks, as you know, Secretary Powell visited the region,
and we're going to continue to be as helpful as we can to the
parties. And any agreement that the parties reach will be an
agreement that we can support.
Q Has the President
agreed to allow undocumented Salvadoreans to remain in the U.S. while
the country recovers from the earthquake?
MR. FLEISCHER: I would urge you to
allow the President to have his meeting with President
Flores. And then as I indicated, following the meeting, we
will have a statement, a print statement, from President Bush and
depending on the meeting, you'll find your answer in that document.
Q Can you just comment
on Greenspan's comments today, and whether this helps you build
momentum with the sales job that you guys have been doing for the last
week, and whether it would help you more if he would be more specific
about the size of the tax cut, which he wasn't at all today?
MR. FLEISCHER: If we would be more
specific?
Q No, if he, if he
would like -- I mean, what he was reluctant to endorse --
MR. FLEISCHER: We do not tell
Chairman Greenspan what to say, or recommend to him what to
say. The Chairman said today, just as he had said previously
in his testimony on the Hill, that he prefers tax cuts to spending
increases. And we note that. But the President is
going to fight for his plan, in all cases.
Q But does it help in
terms of building momentum in trying to get the message out?
MR. FLEISCHER: No, we always note
what Chairman Greenspan says, but he is an independent -- he is
Chairman of an independent agency, the Federal Reserve, and I'm going
to treat it as such.
Q So no one is happy to
hear him say, yet again --
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me broaden the
question. I think one of the things we're seeing that
President Bush has particularly noted is the changing tone in political
circles and economic circles in the country about tax
cuts. It wasn't so long ago where people said, you can't get
a tax cut. It wasn't so long ago that the predominant
Democrat alternative was a $250 billion tax cut. Then it
became a $500 billion tax cut. Now it's a $900 billion tax
cut. All this while, the President has fought for a $1.6 trillion tax
cut. So I think you could call that movement in the right
direction.
Q What was the
President's take on the version of the so I think you could call that
moving in the right direction. Jim.
Q What is the
President's take on the version of the across the board rate cut that
passed the Ways and Means Committee. Was he happy with it?
MR. FLEISCHER: He
was. He was. I told the President about the Ways
and Means vote on the plane coming back yesterday, and the President
was very pleased to hear it and he looks forward to continued
congressional action on it.
Q Was he disappointed
that he didn't pick up any Democrats on that committee?
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think the
President also noted in 1997, when the Congress passed a $275 billion
tax cut -- that was signed into law by President Clinton -- no
Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee voted for it at that time,
either.
Now, of course, subsequent to Committee
action, there was additional action in our final passage, there were a
number of Democrats who did, indeed, vote for it, including some from
the Ways and Means Committee.
So we understand it's the beginning of a
process and it sure is a good beginning.
Q So next week, when
this comes to the House Floor, is it expected to do -- you expect to
see a sizeable number of Democrats cross over and vote with him.
MR. FLEISCHER: No, based on the
1997 example, that would not be likely. In 1997, it was
after the conference agreement and after President Clinton indicated he
would sign it that many of the Democrats who were against tax cuts
changed positions and voted for it.
Q All right, so I'll
ask it the other way around. So he's resigned to the fact
that Democrats are going to vote against him en masse next
week? (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: See, a consistent
question. We'll see what the vote is next
week. And the President is hopeful that many Democrats will
agree with him that taxes are too high and the American people deserve
tax relief.
But it is certainly the prerogative of the
Democrats to vote against tax relief, if that's how they feel.
Q Ari, Japanese
newspapers reported earlier today that the President has decided to
nominate former Senator Howard Baker as the new Ambassador to
Japan. Can you confirm that? Is the announcement
imminent?
MR. FLEISCHER: I do not confirm or
deny or speculate about personnel announcements.
Q Is the President
still willing to meet with Prime Minister Mori of Japan?
MR. FLEISCHER: As soon as we have a
date announced, we'll let you know.
Q Ari, as the President
continues the budget tour, any chance we'll see town hall meetings or
things like that, where maybe he's a little more likely to encounter
questions from real people, who aren't quite as enthusiastic as the one
we saw last week? (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: I hate to describe
the people who were with him in the last several days as
non-real. I think they may take umbrage.
No, you know, the people who were with him --
you heard one woman in Atlanta say yesterday she didn't vote for him,
she didn't support him, but she liked what he had to say Tuesday night
and was taking a second look.
We invite people to go to those events who are
in those communities, particularly the Atlanta event, people who are
involved in health care for our children. They worked at
that hospital, they had a role to play in delivering health care to the
children.
We may have different formats, different
events, we may change things up. And as we do, they will
unfold before your eyes.
Q Are you suggesting
you're going to have tax families who oppose the tax cut
now? (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, there was
certainly -- the President was joined by somebody yesterday at the spot
that she didn't vote for him. And we don't ask the tax
families who they voted for.
Q That's not my
question. It was whether you have any tax families who
oppose the tax cut?
MR. FLEISCHER: We were talking
about supporting the President.
Q Back to Don's
question, though. Is he going to go to forums where he's
more likely to get contentious questions?
MR. FLEISCHER: He enjoys coming to
news conferences.
Q Speaking of
contentious, the Oklahoma Sooners are coming here Monday, but your
staff includes an awful lot of Texas Longhorns. I mean, is
there going to be a problem?
MR. FLEISCHER: For the
Longhorns. (Laughter.)
Q Ari, may I ask a
foreign policy question? A week ago, meeting with the
British Prime Minister, the President endorsed the idea of the European
rapid reaction force. Is there any connection between his
endorsement and his long known, long announced intention to withdraw
American peacekeeping forces from the Balkans?
MR. FLEISCHER: No.
Q Is that a prelude to
the withdrawal?
MR. FLEISCHER: No. The
withdrawal of the 750 Americans from the Balkans was a long-planned
withdrawal, and there was no connection.
Q Ari, can you affirm
that the President is committed to stabilizing the Balkans first and
cutting back on the U.S. involvement only after that?
MR. FLEISCHER: Again, the President
has been crystal clear that he will consult with our allies about our
involvement in the Balkans, and that
the President, as a general approach, does believe that the United
States is overextended. And he will work with our allies on
any type of decisions that are made.
Q Ari, Richard Cohen,
in The Washington Post, has written -- and, I think, most movingly --
of his very deep concern over the board chairman of the U.S. Holocaust
Museum using the museum's letterhead to ask President Clinton to
"perform one of the most God-like actions that anyone can ever do in
pardoning Marc Rich." And Cohen also was concerned that Maya
Angelou, who performed for the anti-Semitic Farrakhan's march, was
appointed to the museum's board.
Does the President agree or disagree with Mr.
Cohen? And if he has no statement, how do you feel about it,
Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: I have not discussed
it with the President.
Q How do you feel?
MR. FLEISCHER: I hold no personal
views. I am the spokesman for the President.
Q Ari, one quick
question on Sunday. Can you just tell us a little bit about
the President's involvement and what we can expect from remarks that he
might deliver for the USS Reagan speech?
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes. The
remarks Sunday by the President will be a tribute to Ronald
Reagan. It will be a reflection about how former President
Reagan changed the country for the better, how good and proud he made
us feel about our nation and how strong he made our national defense;
something that we are still benefitting from today. And it
will be a tribute to President Reagan.
Q One more scheduling
thing. He left the NATO Secretary General off of
Thursday. I'm assuming it's still on?
MR. FLEISCHER: For Thursday?
MS. COUNTRYMAN: It is -- is it this
Thursday? Yes.
MR. FLEISCHER: Yes. I
gave a quick overview. If that was previously announced for
this Thursday, yes, it is still on.
Q I didn't hear the
question. What was the question?
MR. FLEISCHER: The meeting of NATO,
of Lord Robertson is on Thursday next week, as well.
Thank you.
END 1:10 P.M. EST
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