some of the things you've seen here to get the bigger picture and alsocommunicate that to us.  (Laughter.)^L        THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  There are two things I'd like torespond to on that and I'd like to invite you to help.  I'd like toinvite you to help and I'd like to invite you to help on two grounds:One is the simple ground of helping to decide which visual images bestcapture the reality of where we are and where we're going.        Senator Moynihan and I went to Franklin Roosevelt's home in HydePark, New York, just a couple of days ago.  You may have seen the presson it.  And on the way back he said to me that the challenges that weface are different from those that Roosevelt faced, but just as profound.Unemployment was higher and America was more devastated when he tookoffice, he said, but everybody knew what the problem was.  Therefore, hehad a lot of leeway working with the Congress in the beginning to worktoward a solution.  Now, he said, we are facing severe challenges to acentury of economic leadership and it's not clear to every Americanexactly what the dimensions of the problem are.        The capacity you have to help me help the American peopleconceptualize this is quite significant:  showing the trends in thedeficit, showing the trends in the investment, showing how the money isspent now and how we propose to spend it.        The second big problem we have you can see if you look at thefront page of USA Today today, which shows a traditional analysis,yesterday's analysis -- of the business section -- of the economicprogram.  It basically says, oh, it will bring unemployment a little andit will increase economic growth a little if we do this, but not all thatmuch.  Now, why is that?  That's because traditional economic analysissays that the only way the government can ever help the economy grow isby spending more money and taxing less.  In other words, traditionalchanging economics will run a bigger deficit.        But we can't do that.  The deficit is already so big, I can't runthe risk to the long-term stability of this country by going in and doingthat.        This analysis doesn't really make a distinction betweeninvestment and consumption; doesn't take any account of what we might towith the technology policy or a trade policy to make the economy growfaster; has no way of factoring in what other good things could happen inthe private market if you brought long term interests rates down throughthe deficit.        So you could also help us to reconceptualize this.  A lot of themodels that dominate policymaking are yesterday's models, too.  I'll giveyou just one example.  The Japanese had a deficit about as big as oursand they were increasing spending at 19 percent a year --governmentspending -- back in the early '70s when the oil prices went way up andthey were more energy-dependant than we were on foreign oil.  And theyjust decided they had change it, but they couldn't stop investing.        So they had a budget which drew a big distinction -- a literaldistinction -- legal distinction between investment and consumption andthey embarked on a 10 or 11-year effort to bring the budget into balance.And during that time they increased investment and lowered unemploymentand increased growth through the right kind of spending and investment.        And I want to lead in, if I might, and ask the Vice Presidentbefore we go to give you some of the specifics of this technology policyby making one more pitch to you about this whole economic plan.  Thisplan has 150 specific budget cuts.  And I will be welcome -- I'm welcometo more.  I told the Republican leadership if they had more budget cutsthat didn't compromise our economy, if they helped us, I would be glad toembrace them.  I'm not hung up about that, but I did pretty good in fourweeks to find 150.  And I'll try to find some more on my own.^L        It also has the revenue increases that you know about.  It alsohas some spending increases and there will be debate about that.  Therewill be people who say, well, just don't spend this new money, don'timmunize all the kids, don't fully fund Head Start, don't pay for thistechnology policy, don't invest in all these environmental cleanupthings, and that way you won't have to raise taxes so much.        The problem is, if you look at the historic spending trends, weare too low on investment and too high on the deficit -- and both areproblems.  And secondly, we've got to have some of these economiccooperations in order to move the economy forward.        So I want you to listen to what the Vice President says in thatcontext.  Because what you will hear is, we don't need to do what wethink we should do in this area.  If we don't, I think we'll be out ofcompetition.  People like you will do fine because you've got a goodcompany here, but the country as a whole will fall behind.  And you canhelp on both those points.        So would you proceed?        THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I want to give you just a few of the detailsof this technology policy.  There will be a printed copy available andyou will be able to see for yourself all of the goals and all of theelements of it.        But I want to start by describing how it fits into thePresident's economic plan.  You know, some of the special interests whooppose the President's plan are saying to the American people, don't passthis plan because everything is fine just the way it is.  Well, anybodywho says everything is fine with our economy hasn't been to Californialately.  We need some change.  We can't stand the status quo.(Applause.)        California has to participate in the recovery in order forAmerica to have a recovery that is worth the name recovery.  So that we can start creating new jobs.  And many of the high-skill, high-wage jobsof the future are in technology areas.  And that's why a key component ofthe President's economic plan is the technology policy that we'reannouncing here today.        It starts with an appreciation of the importance of continuingbasic R&D, because that's the foundation for all of the exciting productsthat this company and others like this company come up with.  Itcontinues with an emphasis on improving education, because in order forcompanies like this one to survive and prosper in the world economy, weas a nation have to have highly educated, well-trained young men andwomen coming out of colleges on to campuses like this -- it's not called-- you call it a campus, right?  That's the term that's very common now.        We also have to pay attention to the financial environment inwhich companies like this have to exist.  In order for this company toattract investors for the kind of products that you are building here,you have got to be able to tell them that the interest rates are notgoing to be too high if they're borrowing money to invest; you've got tobe able to tell them, look, President Clinton is making permanent the R&Dtax credit, for example, and there are going to be specific newprovisions in the law to  encourage investment in high-risk ventures thatare very common in the high-technology area.        And then this plan makes specific investments in something calledthe national information infrastructure.  Now, infrastructure is a five-dollar word that used to describe roads, bridges, water lines, and sewerlines.  But if we're going to compete in the 21st century, we have toinvest in a new kind of infrastructure.^L        During the Industrial Revolution, the nations that competed mostsuccessfully were often ones that did the best job of building deep-waterports; those that did the best job of putting in good railway systems tocarry the coal and the products to the major centers where they weregoing to be sold and consumed.  But now we are seeing a change in thedefinition of commerce.  Technology plays a much more important role.Information plays a much more important role.        And one of the things that this plan calls for is the rapidcompletion of a nationwide network of information super highways.(Applause.)  So that the kind of demonstrations that we saw upstairs willbe accessible in everybody's home.  We want to make it possible for aschool child to come home after class and, instead of just playingNintendo, to plug into a digital library that has color-moving graphicsthat respond interactively to that child's curiosity.        Now, that's not the only reason to have such a network or anational information infrastructure.  Think about the importance ofsoftware.  If we could make it possible for talented   young softwarewriters here in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the United States to selltheir latest product by downloading it from their desk into a nationwidenetwork that represented a marketplace with an outlet right there in thatperson's home or business, we would make it possible for the men andwomen who are interested in technology jobs here in the United States toreally thrive and prosper.        And in keeping with one of the questions that was asked earlierabout how we can export more into the world marketplace and how we can bemore successful in world competition, one way is by making our owndomestic market the most challenging, most exciting, with the mostexacting standards and levels of quality of any nation in the world.  Andthen we will naturally roll out of our domestic marketplace into theworld marketplace and compete successfully with our counterpartseverywhere in the world.        Now, there are some other specific elements of this package whichyou can read for yourself when you see the formal package.  Let me justlist them very briefly:  A permanent extension of the research andexperimentation tax credit; completion of the national informationinfrastructure; specific investments in advanced manufacturing technologywith measures such as -- (applause.)  And in response to one of thequestions that was asked over here, there is a specific program on high-speed rail to do the work necessary, to lay the foundation for anationwide network of high-speed rail transportation, and a specificproject to work cooperatively with the automobile companies in the UnitedStates of America to facilitate the more rapid development of a newgeneration of automobiles that will beat all the world standards andposition our automobile industry to dominate the automobile industry ofthe future in the world.  (Applause.)        We also have a specific goal to apply technology to education andtraining.  Dr. Gibbon* and others have given a tremendous amount ofthought to this because, after all of the dashed hopes and falseexpectations for computers in schools, ironically, we now have a newgeneration of educational hardware and software that really can make arevolutionary difference in the classroom, and it's time to use it.(Applause.)        And we are going to save billions of dollars each year part waythrough this decade with the full implementation of environmentaltechnologies and energy efficiency technologies, starting with federalbuildings.  We're going to save a billion dollars a year in 1997 just inthe energy costs of federal buildings around the United States by usingoff-the-shelf technology that has a four-year payback on the investment.And then we're going to encourage the use of those technologies aroundthe country, and we're going to invest in the more rapid creation of newgenerations of that technology.^L        Now, the other details of this technology program will beavailable in the handout that's going to be passed out here.  And any ofyou who have ideas on how we can improve it and make better use oftechnology, we invite you to contact us and let us know how we canimprove this program as we go along.        But one final word.  The President's economic program is based,as he said, on cutting spending; reducing the deficit over time,including with some revenue increases that are progressive and fair; andalso investing in those things which we know will create good, high-wage,high-skilled jobs here in the United States.  You all are pioneers in asense, showing how that can be accomplished.  We want to make it easierfor working men and women throughout this company and other companies tofollow your example and to create more jobs in high technology.        And that is the focus of this economic -- of this technologypolicy, which is part of the overall plan to create more jobs for theAmerican people and get our economy moving again.  (Applause.)        THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)                            END10:41 A.M. PST--Mark Boolootian         booloo@llnl.gov         +1 510 423 1948Disclaimer:  booloo speaks for booloo and no other.