White House Gaggle

By Ellen Ratner
December 16, 2000

President’s Schedule

The President will attend the economic summit and make remarks afterwards. He
will attend holiday receptions for the press tonight. He had his usual
round of briefings.

Alan Greenspan

Asked if the President had spoken to Alan Greenspan about becoming the next Treasury Secretary, McClellan would only say that he had asked Secretary Snow to continue his, "outstanding job as a member of the economic team and that speculation is a game I don’t play."

Bin Laden Tape

McClellan said that the intelligence community was looking into the authenticity of the tape and that, "in the global struggle of ideologies" we will win the war on terror.

UN Secretary

UN Secretary Kofi Annan will meet today with Dr. Condoleezza Rice. There is no scheduled meeting with the President. The White House is pleased that the United Nations is increasing the number of its workers in Iraq. They have not specified how many they are sending.

Economic Conference

The conference will address the fiscal challenges today. The President will talk about the short term deficit by making sure that the economy continues to grow. The President intends to cut the deficit in half within five years. In terms of personal accounts for Social Security and other issues, Scott referred reporters to the bi-partisan Social Security report. In terms of long term solutions, Scott said the President said that he would not negotiate with himself.

Supplemental

Scott would not say how large it would be and would only say that there is, "no formal request from the Department of Defense at this point."

Billy Tauzin and the revolving door

Scott said that ethical guidelines are in place and he, "did not talk to the President about specific people."

Baseball

Scott said the President thought it was great that baseball was coming to Washington. He also said that the President thought that public financing of stadiums was a local decision.

Violence in Iraq

Scott was asked if the President thought that the violence in Iraq would diminish after the elections. He said that the commanders briefed yesterday and, "they would have to adapt to meet those challenges." He said that there were those in Iraq who wanted to live in the past and that, "they are being defeated."