Documents / Official release

[01/29/1998 - 10/19/1999]: 24194021-20060474F-001-023-2023

· 88 pages · text from the file's own layer

This release contains White House Exchange Mail records dated January 1998 to October 1999. Most of it is a transcript of a January 29, 1998 press briefing by Press Secretary Mike McCurry covering Iraq, Iran, the budget and the Lewinsky inquiry, plus a 1998 presidential speech. An October 19, 1999 email among Transnational Threats staff forwards a Florida Today article on how scientists expect alien contact would spark a media frenzy rather than a cover-up, describing the 1989 SETI detection protocol.

  • p. 47 …with a bipartisan plan that might be harder for any person to do alone And I…
34FE6299.FIN Page 8 of 14
Q What's your answer to Republican criticism that if the President was i
MR. SPERLING: I'm sorry, your question was?
Q The question is, Republicans have been critical, saying that if the Pre:
http://classified/email/data_source/exchange/record/cd008/febl998/34fe6299.html 1/5/2010
was very serious about saving Social Security first that money from the
settlement would be devoted to the Social Security trust fund and not to
various new programs that you delineated in the budget.
very serious about saving Social Security first that money from the tax
settlement would be going to Social Security and not to all the various
programs
that you've delineated in the budget.
MR SPERLING: We are being consistent since the '92 campaign -- that
believe
I guess my answer is, under our projections we're hoping that will not b<
necessary. But it is not inconsistent with our view, and if a surplus stark
accumulate and people thought that was a reasonable idea, it would cert
be
something we would be willing to consider. But the important thing is tl
under
any of these scenarios we shouldn't spend the money. I think if a few bil
of
that simply goes to paying down the debt while we're solving this probk
don't feel that's inconsistent with the President's proposal. But neither de
think it's inconsistent if others down the road see a surplus accumulating
while
we're still debating Social Security reform and want to come up with soi
form of
legislative device for saving or protecting that.
So, in other words, our budget - our hope is to have Social Security ref
by
the end of fiscal year '99. So it is our -- we are trying to get this done on
timetable in which we do not believe - or we do not project that a surpl
would
have accumulated much at that time.
Now, the question is what if, in this time period, prior to the end of fiset
year '99 when we're trying to get Social Security reform, you're asking y
happens if the surplus does emerge. What would happen if there's no
legislation
is it just buys down the debt. And the question is if there was a decent
amount
of a surplus is there some mechanism in which you would try to save th;
keep
those savings available for the Social Security trust fund.

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About this file

Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 88 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.