Remarks on Federal Loan
Assets Sales
The President. Well, thank you,
Secretary Lyng. Jim, you have it now, so that ought
to reduce this fiscal year's deficit by over $3 billion. And I welcome
Professor Linowes and the members of the
Privatization Commission. These loan assets sales were very successful, as you
can see, and they sold easily and on very favorable terms because of a great
deal of hard work on the part of officials at the Departments of Education and
Agriculture and by people like Joe Wright at OMB.
The
loan sales proceeds of approximately $3.41 billion constitute a significant
step toward reducing the Federal Government's deficit, as I've said, and even
more can be done to privatize Federal loans. Presently, the Federal Government
is the Nation's largest lender, with $252 billion in direct loans, $450 billion
in loan guarantees, and $453 billion in government-sponsored loans. We will be
taking a close look at these assets to determine which loans can be better
handled by the private sector.
But
while all agree that the deficit must be cut, there is a new roadblock to the
promising approach of asset sales. As part of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings ``fix''
in the debt ceiling extension, Congress prohibited counting the proceeds of
asset sales toward reducing the deficit. This reflects the choice of some in
Congress to achieve deficit reductions through higher taxes or lower national
defense. Others agree with our position to reduce the deficits through cuts in
wasteful domestic spending and through privatization measures such as the one
that we announce here today. Any congressional restriction on deficit reduction
which would increase the tax burden on every taxpayer is wrong.
The
difference in perspective here is useful. There are those who believe in less
government and low taxation, and there are those who believe in big government
and high taxation, and that's a choice I've always felt we could confidently
leave to the American people. They've made their feelings known in the past,
and I think they will do so again. So, we're going to carry on, and you, I
think, are contributing nobly to this task that we have of getting the
Government back into the business of government and getting it out of the hair
of private business in this country.
So,
God bless you all, and thank you for what you are doing.
Supreme
Court Nomination
Reporter. Mr. President, it sounds like your Judge
Bork nomination is in trouble.
The President. Well, I'm very optimistic.
I think that common sense will prevail, and they will realize he's the best
choice on the market today for that post.
Q.
Senator Cranston says that he's licked already. He's counted the votes.
The President. Well, Senator
Cranston's been wrong before. [Laughter]
CIA
Covert Operations
Q.
What do you think of Casey's off-the-books operations, which
has stunned this town and the country?
The President. What?
Q.
Off the books, Casey's operations?
The President. I think that there's an
awful lot of fiction about a man who was unable to communicate at all and is
now being quoted as if he were doing nothing but talk his head off.
Q.
Well, did you sign the directive that led to a massacre in
The President. No. And I have a copy
of the measure that I signed.
Q.
Can we see it?
The President. It was nothing but that
we were all approving a plan requested of us by the Government of Beirut -- of
Q.
Did he carry on any actions without your knowledge, Mr. President?
The President. You're keeping all
these people from getting back -- [laughter] -- --
Q.
Did he carry out any covert actions without your knowledge -- Mr. Casey?
The President. Not that I know of.
Q.
Well, don't you think you should have known? It seems to me that he did a lot
of things you didn't know about.
The President. No, I think I did know,
and there are a lot of things he's being charged with right now. I was going to
say credited with, but you couldn't describe them as charged with. And I don't
think any of them have a basis in fact.
Note: The President
spoke at