Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ There are many Americans who are concerned about improving education across the country. There are many organizations that come to Washington for the sole purpose of lobbying members of Congress or lobbying the administration on an education issue, for example. It is entirely appropriate for the administration to listen, to hear them, just as it's entirely appropriate for the administration to listen to steel workers who want to come to Washington, or to listen to business leaders who want to come to Washington. ”

“ Foreigners who come to this country, foreign leaders, of course, who come to this country -- the administration believes it's important to listen to the causes of the American people, whether it's an individual or it's a business or whether it's labor. Q But is it appropriate for administration officials to meet with corporate executives who are seeking private action by the government -- seeking action to benefit their specific private interests? ”

“ MR. FLEISCHERThe President believes that the best way to get health insurance to as many Americans as possible is through a combination of the successful private plans that have been working, particularly for people who are under 65, and by reforming and saving Medicare, so that people who turn 65 will have a Medicare program they can count on and rely on that includes prescription drugs. ”

“ I think you can imagine that these are delicate diplomatic conversations that take place and that to preserve the greatest likelihood of a successful outcome over a long period of time, the right of leaders to have conversations in private should be respected. ”

“ What's important in the President's opinion, is to concentrate on those people who do not have any insurance of any type, and that's why the President is committed to the health care reforms that he ran on. Q Ari, Senator Daschle said if necessary, he would hold the Senate in through the July 4 recess to pass a patients' rights bill. ”

“ Congress takes the President's belief and goes way too far and hands too many favors over to trial lawyers, in a manner that would make health care premiums go up, in a manner that would deprive people of health insurance because of rising costs, in a manner that would hurt our health care system and would fundamentally hurt people's ability to be protected from their HMOs because it would stop a good bill from getting signed into law. Q Ari, what is the state of play on that? ”

“ So it's part of the administration's effort to listen to people who have causes that are worth bringing to the attention of government leaders from all walks of life. Q Ari, presuming that almost all of the American Legion voted for Bush and not for Clinton's Vice President, surely the President has a response to the Legion commander's letter -- "you campaigned on a promise to shore up combat readiness, but we are abandoning what the Navy and Marine Corps consider the most important East Coast training site." ”

“ And the President will continue to be as helpful as is possible, to play the role of facilitator. But it remains fundamentally important for all the parties in the Middle East to act to preserve the fragile cease-fire and to build upon it. ”

“ Q Would you agree with the officials who said yesterday that one reason to do this is you might lose, you don't have a very good case? MR. FLEISCHERI think it's hard to speculate about what the prospects of a court outcome will be. But it's the Attorney General's recommendation to proceed on two tracks, one involving the litigation, the second involving a settlement. Q Let me follow up. I don't want to know why the person who recommended it made the recommendation. Why does the President think that we should -- the United States should try to settle this suit? ”

“ MR. FLEISCHERThe participation by the United States will be something that is discussed at the appropriate time. Q But, Ari, they are planning now -- they are planning that force now. MR. FLEISCHERBut it's contingent on an achievement of political agreement in Macedonia first, as NATO indicated, and as Secretary Powell testified on the Hill. Q Every other American President who had dealt with the Middle East has been pretty even-handed in the sense that the President sees an Israeli official he will see the counterpart of the Palestinians. ”

“ Does this President have a position on -- MR. FLEISCHERThe President's position is that the United States government should work as productively and cooperatively as it can to try and resolve matters short of litigation. There are going to be times when it's appropriate to litigate. The Department of Justice is proceeding to both litigate and pursue settlement talks and that's the President's position. ”

“ So the administration will continue to work with members of the House and the Senate, Democrats, Republican, independents alike, to try to secure an agreement. He hopes that the leaders in the Congress, particularly in the Senate, will be willing to compromise, and will be willing to work with him. Q Is there movement? ”

“ Q Ari, back on the Mideast for a minute. As you've said a couple of minutes ago, and you've said before, ultimate progress will be up to the parties, themselves. Is the administration's goal here to get Arafat and Sharon to sit down together or to resume direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians? MR. FLEISCHERWell, there have been direct discussions between Israel and the Palestinians. ”