Interview with Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 12, 1999

July 6, 1999

2000 Election

Mr. Brownstein. I enjoyed being out there today after spending so much time in the last few weeks with the Vice President and the Governor. And we have so much 2000 going on already, it seems a little odd, you know, in some ways. I mean, you've got - you and the Congress both have 16, 17, 18 months left, and you know, it's almost like we're in a fall - it just seems somehow premature to me, I don't know.

The President. It is, but I think part of it is the - that's - I think we're doing what we should do, which is to keep plugging at the policy stuff, because in fairness to all the candidates, the States, in their rush to maintain maximum influence, have continued to move these dates up. So I don't really see that they had any choice. And when they're out there doing it, you've got to cover them. But I think -

Mr. Brownstein. Is it harder to get things done in Washington?

The President. I wouldn't - that depends on how - the attitude of Congress - I think that - in both parties. Not necessarily. I think in some ways, it may play to the desire of every person in public life, including the Members of the House and the Senate in both parties, always to be relevant and to say, hey, I'm here, too. So in a funny way, it could increase our ability to act, both this year and next year. And as I tell the Republicans all the time - and the Democrats - if we solve everything, if we reached an agreement on Social Security, Medicare, if we committed to pay the debt off in 15 years, which is something that I think is a huge, still, sleeper opportunity for the American economy - think of all the things that would still be there for them to disagree about.

Working With Congress

Mr. Brownstein. Do you think you can reach an agreement? What do the prospects feel like to you now - agreement on entitlement and taxes?

The President. Prospects feel, to me, better than conventional wisdom would hold they are. What I have to be able to do is to convince both parties that doing the right thing is usually the best politics. The people have hired us to work, and they expect us to work, and that there will still be this huge array of things over which they have genuine disagreements, you know? We have big disagreements that are important on education, so that no matter what we do on education, a lot of the disagreements will remain. And a lot of the opportunities will remain, you know, for fertile debate.

We have these massive disagreements, on guns, that are huge, where there seems to be no reasonable prospect that the divide can be bridged. But to go back to what I'm doing now, it would seem to me that this is, from my point of view, with the whole New Democrat philosophy I try to articulate, the embodiment of everything I believe. But it also is consistent with what entrepreneurial Republicans believe, because this is not a Government program in any conventional sense, and it is designed to spawn private sector growth.

New Markets Initiative

Mr. Brownstein. What is the principal thing you're hoping to accomplish on this tour? Is it to push forward the legislation, or is it something else?

The President. I think the principal thing I'm hoping to accomplish, which I think will help to push forward the legislation, is to convince the critical mass of the economic and political decisionmakers in this country that there is both an opportunity and an obligation in the underdeveloped parts of this.

You'd be amazed. When I talk to businesspeople, I say, look, forget about the moral obligation and the people that deserve a chance in life, although surprisingly, a lot of these business executives feel that. They feel that they've benefited in their own personal holdings, their businesses have. The stock market more than triples; the economy's got the most peacetime expansion in history. If we get fortunate, it'll be the longest expansion in history, including wartime expansions, if we keep it going, you know, if we're lucky and prudent. So I've been very touched that a lot of them feel the moral pull of this.

But what I say to them is that when I started thinking about this economy, seriously, probably 12 years ago now, and thinking about what it would take to make America work again. And then I tried to put the ideas together a decade ago, in 1989 and '90 and then in '91, I gave those speeches at Georgetown. Most conventional economists believe, even my own economists - Laura Tyson, who did a fabulous job for me - I remember sitting around the table at Little Rock in December of '92 and having her say, "Mr. President, most economists, including most Democrats, believe that if you get the unemployment rate much below 6 percent for very long" - do you remember that, Gene? We were at the Governor's mansion -----

National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling. I remember Bob and I brought in Laura and Larry so that we could all tell you at once, and this was when we were in the -----

The President. If you create more than 8 million jobs in your first term, and we get this unemployment rate much below 6 percent, we'll have inflation. The Fed will have to really raise interest rates; it'll break the back of the recovery. And I argued to the contrary because of two things. I thought if we had open markets and maximized the impact of technology, that it would tend to dramatically increase productivity and hold down prices, and, of course, you know, that's what's happened.