Remarks on Signing the
Continuing Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1988 and the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1987
The President. I have a brief
statement here. The first thing I think I should explain is, no, I have not
been cleaning out my desk. These stacks of paper contain the Federal budget for
1988 and represent a lot of hard work to forge an agreement between the
administration and the Congress to place our country on the right course toward
reducing the Federal budget deficit and continuing the longest peacetime
expansion in history. The bipartisan leadership in the House and Senate is to
be commended, not just for reaching a 2-year deficit reduction agreement on
November 20th but for implementing the first installment of that $75 billion
plan.
On
October 21st I issued a call for action on the Federal budget deficit, and
together my representatives and those from the Congress spent the next 4 weeks
forging this package. That agreement was the first step toward placing our
country on a reliable and credible budget course, but there's still more to be
done. My pledge to you, then and now, is to move forward with our deficit
reduction plan. So, today I'm signing these bills. The first contains the 13
regular appropriations or spending bills, and the second includes the necessary
revenue and entitlement changes. But there are several other items about these
bills that are extremely important.
First,
funding for those fighting for freedom in
Second,
efforts to legislate the fairness doctrine, which would dictate to broadcasters
how they cover controversial issues, were not successful.
So,
while I agree with these bills at this time, it must be said that wrapping up
the entire legislative business of our country into two thousand-page bills on
the eve of Christmas is not the way to do business. The normal legislative
process should have produced 13 separate appropriation bills. It did not.
Instead, we ran the Government on a string of stopgap funding measures, pushing
the Government right to the brink of defaulting on its commitments to the
American people. As we look forward to the new year,
our commitment should be to correct the inequities and the deficiencies in the
Federal budget process. The foundation has already been laid with this 2-year
budget plan, and I hope the Congress will join me in building for the future
prosperity of our country.
As
a matter of fact, these bills are so big that it's going to take four pens to
sign each ne of them. [Laughter] That is the budget
signed. And this is the reconciliation bill. The deed is done.
Reporter. Mr. President, do you find any
justification at all for the actions the Israelis have taken in
The President. Well, we think it is
regrettable, and our State Department has been talking to both sides in this,
trying to get both sides -- there has been provocation on both sides -- to get
them to cease.
Q.
Israel's leaders say they're not concerned, Mr. President, about how the world
views the situation. So, how do you pressure them, sir?
The President. Well, they may not be
concerned, but maybe the world is concerned.
Federal
Budget
Q.
Mr. President, on the budget, sir, this whole exercise was designed, at one
point, to send a signal to Wall Street of confidence in the economy and
confidence in the way that the administration and Congress were going to attack
the deficit. Yet the markets went down again today; the dollar was still going
down today. And the verdict seems to come back of one of failure or at least of
having done too little, too late.
The President. I hardly think that
that looks like too little. It's been several months too late. I submitted a
budget last January.
Attorney
General Edwin Meese III
Q.
Mr. President, the Special Prosecutor says questions remain about Attorney
General Meese's involvement in the Wedtech scandal. Sir, do you have any questions?
The President. No, I have total faith
in his integrity and --
--
Q.
Are you concerned about the number of administration officials who have
resigned under a cloud or worse, sir?
The President. I'm more concerned
about the way it is being presented -- ignoring the fact that in many of the
cases the charges appear on the front page, and then when it's determined that
the charge was meaningless and had no foundation, that appears on page 29.
Note: As enacted, H.J.
Res. 395, approved December 22, was assigned Public Law No. 100 - 202, and H.R.
3545, approved December 22, was assigned Public Law No. 100 - 203.