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GOP Prepared
To Compromise
On Health Care
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON Senate Republi
can leader Bob Dole said Suriday that his
party was ready to work with President
Clinton on a compromise health care re
form package, but that the legislation
wouldn’t be approved this year.
Dole said the GOP wouldn’t stay on the
sidelines on the health care issue as it did in
unanimously rejecting Clinton’s deficit
cutting budget plan earlier this year. The
Kansas Republican said several Republi
can health care plans were expected to be
introduced to counter the Clinton plan.
But Dole, in an appearance on CNN’s
“Newsmaker Sunday,” declined to criti
cize the Clinton approach to health care
reform for the time being and suggested
there would be room for negotiation and
compromise.
“I think we ought to keep our powder
dry,” said Dole. “If we’re going to have
broad bipartisan action on health care, we
shouldn’t start firing shots before we even
know what’s in the package.” Clinton,
returning from an 11-day vacation in
Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., is expected to
focus in the coming months on getting
congressional ratification of the North
American Free Trade Agreement and sup
port for an overhaul of the health care
system.
A special task force on health care re
form, headedby First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton, is scheduled to produce its pro
posals within weeks.
Time magazine reported that some
Clinton advisers were worried that the
proposed health care reforms would cost
tens of thousands of jobs and that Clinton
had not prepared the public for such job
losses. Clinton has said that he anticipates
that health care changes will “boost job
creation."
But, according to Time, some computer
projections examined by the task force
suggest that as many as one million jobs
may be lost over the next five years as
health care changes go into effect.
Estimates by independent economic
analysts have put job losses at between
200,000 and 600,000.
The magazine said the findings had
caused Clinton’s health-care advisers to
refine computer models and make adjust
ments in their yet-to-be-released health care
plan to minimize the transitionaljoblosses.
Dole said that, along with the Clinton
administration, “our goal is universal
(health care) coverage” and the Republi
cans were prepared to discuss compro
mises with the White House on health care
legislation. But he said he expected Con
gress first to tackle the North American
Free Trade Agreement for which there is
considerable Republican —as well as ad
ministration support.
COPLAND
FROM PAGE 3
"In some ways, the number of bodies
may well make up for that," she said.
Student government's budget for this
year is SIO,OOO one-third of last year’s
budget. Even excluding line-item expenses
for special events that last year’s adminis
tration received, this year's budget is still
“appreciably lower,” Copland said.
Toll said the administration would ask
for additional funds as it planned projects.
The biggest challenge of having a large
administration will be finding active roles
for everyone, Toll said.
But this year’s student government will
explore more issues and work on more
projects, especially since this year is the
University’s Bicentennial, she said.
“Each of the individual coordinators
has a very ambitious agenda,” Toll said.
“There will be exponentially more going
on in student government than in the past. ”
Unlike John Moody’s administration
last year, Copland’s includes separate com
mittees for specific issues. Coordinators
head each of the eight committees: race
relations, academic affairs, environmental
issues, state relations, special projects, pub
lic relations, communications and campus
safety.
“The more people we have involved,
the more we’re in touch with the students, ”
said Tommy Koonce, internal chief of staff.
“We’re going to do our best to make it a
big, working government.”
Committee coordinators are now plan
ning meetings and contacting students who
signed up last spring.
MINORITY
FROM PAGE 3
Fayetteville State or telling students they
might not want to consider college,” he
said. “We’re losing a lot of really good
minority students to (N.C.) Central and
(N.C.) State.”
Interaction between the races is the best
way to improve race relations on campus,
Dervin said.
“I think race relations is such a far
reaching thing, ... (and) it’s best broken
down through one-on-one interactions,”
he said. “What we want to do is increase
the number of minorities so white students
have a better chance to interact with mi
nority students.”
Toll said student government wanted to
work with the admissions office and the
Division of Student Affairs to augment
their recruitment efforts.
“They’re the experts on it, we’re not,”
Toll said. “We’re just looking to share
resources, manpower and support.
Students also could help expand the
existing Tar Heel Target program, Toll
said.
“The problem with Tar Heel Target is
it’s underfunded and on a small scale,”
Toll said “We want to take Tar Heel
Target one step farther.”
NAFTA Opposed by Vast Majority of Democrats, Bonior Says
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON Rep. David
Bonior, the third-ranking Democrat in the
House, said Sunday he was adamantly
opposed to the free trade agreement with
Mexico and that up to three-fourths of
House Democrats shared his views.
The Michigan lawmaker said the North
American Free Trade Agreement was a
“lousy treaty” that would strip Americans
of jobs and would not help Mexicans “be
cause of their low-wage society and the
corruptness” in their political and social
structure.
Bonior, the majority whip, whose re
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sponsibilities include counting votes, said
that “up to two-thirds to maybe 75 percent
of the Democratic caucus in the House is
opposed to this treaty.”
The congressman said there was noth
ing President Clinton could do to change
his mind. “By passing this treaty all we are
doing is institutionalizing the corruption
over there and impeding us” in reaching a
better treaty in the future, he told NBC’s
“Meet the Press” program.
Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-
Kan., who, like most Republicans, sup
ports the treaty negotiated during the Bush
administration, suggested that the pact first
be taken up by the Senate, where opposi
tion was not as great.
“I’d take it up in the Senate first and
apply more pressure to the House that
way,” Dole said on CNN’s “Newsmaker
Sunday” show. “I think we have enough
votes if we can furnish 34,35 Republicans.
I certainly think you could get 16 out of 56
Democrats” in the Senate, Dole said.
NAFTA would lower tariffs and re
move other trade restrictions among the
United States, Mexico and Canada. Clinton
came out for the plan during the presiden
tial campaign after promising he would
obtain side-agreements on protecting jobs
and the environment such agreements
were reached earlier this month —and
said he wanted Congress to pass the treaty
by the end of this year.
Critics include organized labor, key
Democrats such as Bonior and House
Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-
Mo., and former presidential candidates
Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan.
Bonior, reiterating the main argument
against the treaty, cited a Commerce De
partment report that said the United States
could lose up to 40 percent of jobs in such
industries as automobiles, steel, apparel
and textiles as American companies relo
Monday, August 30,1993
cate in Mexico to take advantage of the low
wages there.
However, Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Ca
lif., a supporter of the treaty, said most
other studies showed that the pact would
create a minimum 0f200,000 jobs over a
two-year period as lower tariffs induced
Mexico’s expanding consumer market to
buy more American products.
Rep. Fred Grandy, R-lowa, who ap
peared along with Matsui on "Meet the
Press, ” said Republicans were not entirely
happy about helping Clinton but “if we are
unable to deliver this package it’s not just
the president that loses, it’s the country.”
5