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�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
January 14, 1995
For Internal Use Only
TELEPHONE INTERVIEW OF THE FIRST LADY
BY DAVID MARANISS OF THE WASHINGTON .POST
CAMP DAVID
Q
Thank you for calling me.
up there.
It must be a beautiful day
MRS. CLINTON: . Well, it's getting ,that way. It was really
foggy this morning. Very, very deep fog. But it's beautiful no
matter what the weather is up here. .
Q
Well, I won't take long. I appreciate. the follow-up
conversation .. There were a couple of questions I wanted to ask
you, .whicli Maggie obviously wanted me to ask, so •••
MRS. CLINTON:
Okay.
Q
And that has to do with the future. You were talking
about how you don't think anyone can be defined, but you can
define yourself by sUbstance •.•
MRS. CLINTON:
By what you do.
I· agree with that.
Q
And.I wanted to end my s~ory with how you hope to
define yourself by substance in the next two years, please.
you are doing and plan to do, and where you'll concentrate.
What
MRS. CLINTON:. Well, I plan to continue doing what I have
done for many years. I plan to try to. be a voice for children
and speak out on behalf of children, particularly as so many
decisions are going to be made that directly aff$ct the future
·welfare of children. And I want to. use my experience to help
frame that debate, as I attempted to do in that Newsweek piece.
, And to help bring people together who have a lot of experience
and expertise so that their voices coulq :be amplified. And I've
been meeting for some months with a number of groups and
.individuals who are really experts in what works. and what is
important for children. So that is one of my real goals for the
next year •
.Q
. Does that have
a legislative
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component to it, or •..
�MRS. 'CLINTON: No. I think it may not have any direct
legislative component, but it is important that people who are
making decisions about what to do with children, whether they be
children whose mothers are on public assistance, or children who
are in the families of working men and. women who are not getting
the economic resources to constitute a family wage, that people
know what we know about children. You know, the Carnegie
Foundation issued a brilliant report last year about what
children need to develop, between pren~tal and three years of
age. And all too often, we have these public debates and policy
discussions that are not well informed. I certainly found that
during the health care debate. And there are many people in this
country with a wealth of· experience that needs to be part of our
public discourse if we're going to make important decisions about
the future of children. And so that is something that I feel
very personally involved in.· And I hope that I can play some'
role in making sure that the body of knowledge that we have is at
least understood. Whether it is accepted or not isn't something
I can predict. '
. '
o How do you raise that discussion above the level of
private conversations,. which the general public wouldn't know
anything about.
.
MRS. CLINTON: Well, I've already started. I wrote that
piece for Newsweek. And I think that that's one of 'the ways that
I. can perhaps participate.' I've been doing lots of •••
o
So you think you might write some more?
MRS: CLINTON: Oh, I intend to. I a~so have been doing a
lot of radio around the country, talking about these issues. You
. know, and all kinds of radio shows where people are willing to
talk instead of yell I've been talking about what we know about
children and what we can expect fromchildren~ So, I'm going to.
do a lot of public writing and speaking, but I also see my
opportunity to, bring together people who are very expe~ienced.
You know, yesterday, I'met with people from Covenant House'
in New York who have a program called Rites of Passage, which
takes teenage mothers and their babies and puts them into
structured settings and helps the young mothers get on to. their
feet, learn how to be good parents, get their education, get job
skills, help them get their first job, stays in touch with them,
and based on their record so far, it's a 'successful program, as
it well would be, since you're helping the mother, who in most
instances is motivated because she has a baby, to take more
authority over her own life .and resPQnsibility for her baby_
And I have long advocated, that instead of breaking up
'families over poverty or welfare· or illegitimacy, accepting the
fact that we can do a lot of we get the mothers. and the babies
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into some structured settin'g. So, for example, that is a policy
alternative that ought to be considered in this debate. And the
idea that teenage mothers wouldn't get. ~heir welfare payments
unless they went home to their own families may not be a very
good idea since a lot of those girls are fleeing abusive and
. neglectful situations and the families themselves are inadequate
to support them. But it would be a good idea if the welfare
payment went directly to a private or public not-for-profit
setting where caring adults could help to nurture those young
mothers and they could become good parents for their own
children.
.
,
I've also long advocated that the welfare payment ought to
be conditioned on the young mother taking steps that secure the
well-being of their child. You know, ,if you don't get your child
immunized, or you don't take your child to the well-baby check
up, or you don't take your child to the pre-school program'
available, you don't get the welfare payment. So there are lots
of things that people I know, who have been working in the area
of teenage pregnancy and problems associated with illegitimacy,'
are aware of could make a difference.
.
.
.
So, there's that whole voice for 'children that I have tried
to do for 25 years and that I said during the '92 campaign that I
wanted to continue to be. and which I saw health care as a part
of, really, because to me what I was trying to do was to make
sure that health care was available to everybody, and
particularly to children, no matter who they were and no matter
where their parents were employed.
Q
It sounds like ••• I'm sorry to interrupt for justa
second ••• it soundslike ••• it's obviously a very large subject and
.part of it does have a legislative component in the sense of what.
happens with the welfare initiatives over the next year.
.
. MRS. CLINTON: Well, it will. . l ' hope that people whom I
perhaps introduced· to public awareness or ide.as that I bring to
public debate wil~ have an influence. I would be disappointed if .
it didn't. But I'm not going to be writing legislation or spear
heading the Administration's welfare legislation. There will be
other people who have worked very hard on this for many years and
know a lot about it who will be speaking for the Administration.
But I do want what is known about children, for example, in the
carnegie report,. there is a lot that we now know about the brain
development of infants that is very important. We didn't know
that ten years ago. We do know it now.
It would be tragic to make sweepIng changes in' federal
policy without people who are making those changes in the
Congress at 'least knowing that there iS,a lot of information that
may be available to them, but might otherwise be overlooked
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�because the debate is: being played out on rhetorical bases, so
that certain groups with certain points of views that are
ideologically'are really squaring off against one 'another and the
hard work of sifting through the data, both from the medical
point· of view and the social point of view, has got to be done as
well.
So, those are some of the key issues that I hope I can
raise,and then, I continue to be involved in health care. And
the fact that I couldn',t' feel good about the outcome of the
health 'care reform debate doesn't mean that we shouldn't do
, anything to try to, improve health care for people in our" country.
And I want to work on solving problems'in the existing health
care system 'so we can achieve some limited goals. You know, as
I've said to you, I never was First Lady before. And it reminded
me of one night when 'Chelsea was crying as an infant and I was
'rocking her late into the night and I sort of looked at her and I
said, "You know, you've never been a baby before and I've never
been mother before, but we'll figure out how to do ,this." And I
feel now, I mean, I never was a First Lady ,before, and I see so
many opportunities to make some really positive changes in the
health care system. And I've learneds6 much a~out how the
system works.
So now I'm asking myself,what can I do to try to help to
achieve some of those goals.An4 the first one I'm going to be
focus'sing on after doing a lot of spade work over the last
months, is the curious problem caused by the existence of the
mammogram benefit for women on Medicare. But the under'
utilization of that benefit, so that you have'an existing
population of women over 65 who are guaranteed a benefit which
doesn't'exist as a guarantee for women under 65 'in our country,
and fewer than 30 percent take advantage of the benefit, and in
certain population groups fewer than 20 percent. And certainly
we know that the risk of breast cancer increases with age, since
nearly 80 percent of breast cancers occur in women over 50, and
yet we don't know much 'about why women who are guaranteed this
screening will not do it. And of course this is a personal issue
for me' since my mother died of breast cancer last year, but it's
also one that was brought to me in the letters I received from
women during the health care reform work that I did.
Q
So what do 'you do?
MRS. CLINTON: ,So what we're doing is, we've been working
with representatives from the government that are responsible for
implementing Medicare. and the Office of Women's Health and the
various.cancer institutes and .some 'of the advocacy organizations
about breast cancer. And what I going to do is, as I travel
around the country, and I've got some,travel already set for'
other reasons this month, I'm going to have some sessions with
older women, probably, you know, in senior centers and hospitals
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�to talk about what is the problem here. I mean, is it just ,a
matter of it not being well-known to them? 00 their doctors not
tell them about them? Has the advocacy about breast cancer and
the ne~d for screening been delivered in ways that women over 65
think doesn't apply to them?
Because I believe that we need a national, public education
effort, probably later this spring. And it's something the
government can do that would target women over 65, and really
begin to educate them about the importance of mammograms and the
availability of the Medicare benefit.' And then there are related
issues that the government can solve in their. day, but. because
some of the letters that I have received have just been clear
that even though under Medicare a woman is entitled to a
mammogram every other year, that for some women that is not
enough, and they, heed -- that's called a screening mammogram -
and they need what's called a diagnostic mammogram, but their
doctors don't know that if they prescribe it, then Medicare will
pay for it.
So, I have letters from women who, on their own got a
mammogram, maybe they got some information, and found that they
had ,lumps, which then were operated on. They received
. chemotherapy or radiation, and Med,icare paid for the entire
treatment but refused to pay, for the mammogram, because the rules
hadn't been followed that the doctor needed .to prescribe it. Now
that to me is something that we ought to be able to solve.
And then of course this whole debate about when mammograms'
should be available for women younger ,than 65, and particularly
women under 50. I hope I can play. some role in getting good
clear information out.
But my first goal is to take what I see
as a definable problem that the government can address
effectively and try to help find out what it is that the
government can do to better educate women and doctors so that
this benefit, alr'eadyavailable, will be utilized, which will·
save lives and will save money if it is done correctly. So that
is something thatwe.are'kicking off publicly, and I thiilk it
will be a relatively confined issue..We do a lot of those.
o
And you're starting it this 'month?
MRS. CLINTON:Oh, yeah, we're starting it this
do ••• l mean, we're kicking it off publicly, after •••
o
But I
You've been working on it.
MRS. CLINTON: Yeah, we've been Working on it.
kicking it off, like, Wednesday or something.
o
week~
Where?
00 you know?
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But we're
�MRS. CLINTON: New York. Yeah, so that to me is one of the
ways I can continue to try to make some changes in the health
care system that we already have and continue to learn about what
works and what doesn'twork~ Because certainly preventive health
care was one of my big goals. in health 'care reform, and why is it
that this group of women won't utilize' preventive health care. I
think the more we learn about all of this, the more effective we
can be with whatever reforms come next.
And I have continued to be involved i'n taking through what
reforms the President and the Administration should be promoting,
and looking for ways to make the changes that will make the
system work better for people and continue to move us toward the
goal of quality, affordable, universally available health c~re,
which I think has to continue to be the ultimate goal, both for
matters of quality health care and for issues of cost.
And then I guess, I don't want to ratt.1e,on, but there are a
lot of things that we've been working on. And we do a lot of
work that never breaks through the surface, and this whole.~.I
want to do what I can to reinforce the President's message about
the Middle Class Bill of Rights, and I liked it, when he spoke in
Galesburg" Illinois, and he qalled itthe'Middle Class Bill of
Rights and Responsibilities, because that's something he talked
about for the last ten years. 'And I'm going to refer to it in
that way, and I" hope others w.ill as well. And certainly key to
that is creating economic opportunity for working Americans. And
among those working Americans I have a particular concern about
working women. And trying to help highlight some of the problems
that working families have, especially those headed by women, is
something that I feel very strongly about, and we have a lot of
information. You know, this Administ~ation has'really
revitalized the Women's Bureau •••
Q I n the Department of Labor?
~
MRS. CLINTON: . In the ,Department ,of Labor, yeah. 'And has
very good leadership over there. And it did a massive survey of
working women which gave us lots of information about their
.
feelings and attitudes and needs in the workplace that I think we
could do more with if we focussed on what women are telling us,
by listening to them and trying to make sure that the'government
is effective in helping to support women and that the private
sector understands some of the concerns that women have. And
this whole question . of a· family wage that families can feel
secure, about~ that continues ·to raise their incomes, giving them
the resources to care for their own children, is key tO,our
economic and political future.
.
.
.
,
And that's what'thePresfdent's been saying and it's what I
feel so strongly about. And focussing on trying to do what I can
to make clear that you cannot disinvest in people when you still
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don't have their incomes rising in the,private sector without
making some of our problems even worse. You know, I was shocked
to learn, as I've travelled around visiting military bases, that
we have members of our 'military eligible for food stamps. And,
so, I just think that those kinds of facts about'people working
in America need to be made public, and I'm going to try to do
that as well.
Q
When you said you cannot disinvest in people, what did
you mean by that?
MRS. CLINTON: Well, 'for example, 'take food stamps. I mean,
the vast majority of people eligible,for food stamps are working
Americans. Even people who work in our military, for goodness
sakes, full-time military families. So as we think about getting
rid of the programs that help support the incomes, both in the
public and private sectors, of these families, we had better be
very careful to know exactly who we are impacting.
Then, I also want to do what I can to support national
,service, because I have personally,seen the positive work that
the Americorpsis doing, and the positive impact that the
Americorps experience has on a lot of the people who are signed
up for it.,
'
And we will continue to work to strengthen the ties we have
through the international outreach that I've tried to do, both
through things like the Miami Summit and also on the visits I've
made with the President, we've tried to create opportunities for
public/private partnerships with some of these other countries so
that people, especially in health, which is what I'm focussed on,
in the countries I've visited where I've seen children's '
hospitals and medical care under so much stress and basically
falling apart in'the former Soviet Union because of their
financial situation" trying to link them up with people in our
country who can give them technical assistance and some
resources. 'So those are just a few of the things that we work
on.
And I'm trying to be guided by working to make sure that
government action is more effective and can be implemented
better. And trying to make sure that 'factual information about
the impact of public decisions, particularly on children, is well
known. And listening to people like the women who responded to
the survey, or the literally hundreds of thousands who have
written me, to use their letters, as I'm trying to do, as a guide
to what is out there happening to people that I might have some
positive effect on by shining attention on it or quietly solving
a problem.
'
,Q
Without being superficial, it sounds "like kind of being
a national ombudsman to some degree.
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�!
'
MRS. CLINTON:' Well, I can't take all that on. I wouldn't
want to be called that. But I do think there is a lot of work my
staff does every single 'day which keeps me in,touch with what
'people are feeling., And we just have quietly gone about, in the,
last two years, solving'a lot of problems and even getting some
changes in government policy, ,that nobody knew about. And I
don't really personally care whether anybody knows about it,
except that I do think, in terms' of, you know, what people might
think about what we are doing, except that I think it's
significant that there are ways to make government more
effective. And I want people to know that because I want people
to fe~H some confidence that those services ,which either
government is now providing, or which we conclude "that only
government can provide, are being delivered cost-effectively and
with a human understanding about the impact of such decisions on
people.
So I see a lot of opportunity for· that because one of the
conclusions that is' inevitable from the whole health care issue
is that people didn't know a lot about the way our health care
system operated. I was stunned at one of .the very earliest large
meetings that I had to realize that the people I was speaking to,
most of whom were h~alth care professionals, didri't knowhow
Medicare was financed. And I actually asked for a show of hands,
when "I began to get questions that demonstrated this lack of
basic understanding, and out of an audience of maybe four
thousand people, maybe'a hundred raised their hands.
Q
And this was doctors and so on?
MRS. CLINTON: Oh, yes. And this, happened to me
. continually, David, because I began to ask the Medicare question.
Lisa, are you there on the phone?
Lisa:
I'm here, I'm here.
MRS.' CLINTON: And ,oftentimes .the person asking me the
question was a physician. And frequently the response to my
question was, what does that have to qo with it? Or 'a person
would come up and say they didn,'t want the government messing
with the health care system, and Id say, well you look like you
might be, if I could mention, eligible for Medicare. Are you? ,
And he'd say, yes, but what does that ,have to do with it? So, I
began to ask in every audience because I wanted 'to explain to
people something basic to them, but it became clear that we have
not in our country done a good job in our public discourse on
important issues,' which puts those who yell the loudest and'
inflame people and send enough money at a huge advantage. So
clearly, I don't have a lot of strong feelings about the matters
that are being debated, except that I want the, debates to be well
informed. And I think that trying to play some role in doing
that and trying, to break through a lot of the back~and-forth that'
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"
substitutes for informed conversation, would.behelpful, I would
think.
So, it's those kinds of experiences that I've had the last
two years, both in terms of learning about what's out there and
·how people perceive the'government and how they perceive each
other and the concerns they have about what is being done to
them, as well as my individual experiences on actually seeing
problems that are solvable that has kind of pointed me in this
direction for the next year or so.
Lisa:
David, David?
Okay, al'l right.
Q
•• ~feel about getting your message across and
intelligently received, given'the difficulty you had with that in
the health care process and also the public mood ..
MRS. CLINTON: Oh, I have a lot of confidence in that,
David, because I think people really want to have a more informed
public discussion. And I think there are ways that - I'm not
saying that people are going to agree with each other - but there
are ways al least that we can get information into that .
discussion. And I think for me,'doing things like writing the
piece for Newsweek, so it's my words, and it's not an 8 second
sound~bite out of a two hour speech, or, what usually happens
when you're trying to participate in the public arena these days,
at least gives me a different way of thinking about how to get my
point of view across and then listen to people who respond more
to what I'm saying than somebody's perception or mediation of
. what I'm trying to say. And I don't know that i t will be any
easier to do that intoday's current climate, but .1 think that
that's what people are interested in, 'on both sides of the aisle.
I mean, the effort that the Republicans have made to talk
about. historical issues and place some of ·~he~r points of ·.view
into historic context. I think that's very good. 'And you know,
ther~ will certainly be disagreements, but. at least it's trying
to .elevate the debate to some 'extent. .And I think that's what
.
most Americans want, because even those of us who get inflamed by
the give and take and the entertainment that now passes for . '
information, know better, and know that we've got to listen to'
each other and work to' .solve problems together. Otherwise, this
whole political system is going to appear to the average voter to
be irrelevant, and in a Democracy that is a surefire recipe for
significant undermining of the democratic processes and the
future of democracy. So" there's' a lot' at stake, and I hope that
a lot of the people that are, now engaging in the'conversations on
both sides of the political agenda believe that. And that's what
I ,think they're trying to help accomplish •
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�Q
Have you been able to talk to Newt Gingrich about any
of that at all?
'Lisa:
Okay, we •.•
,MRS. CLINTON: Very briefly. And, you know, I look forward
to working with him or with anyone else about these issues
concerning children and families and health care and working
Americans that ,I think, are so important.
Q
Okay, Lisa ••• ·
-- END -:..
•
�
Dublin Core
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Lissa Muscatine - Press Office
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First Lady's Office
Press Office
Lissa Muscatine
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1993 - 1997
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36239" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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2011-0415-S
Description
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<p>Lissa Muscatine first served in the Clinton Administration as a speechwriter. Within the First Lady’s Office, she served as Communications Director to the First Lady.</p>
<p>Lissa Muscatine’s records consist of materials from First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Press Office, highlighting topics such as health care, women’s rights, the Millennium Council, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and deal extensively with press interviews given by the First Lady; her domestic and foreign travel; and speeches and remarks, on a wide variety of topics, given by her before and during her time as First Lady. The records include interview transcripts, press releases, speeches and speech transcripts.</p>
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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1,324 folders in 27 boxes
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FLOTUS Press Office Interview Transcripts Volume V 10/19/94 - 04/10/97 [Binder]: [01/14/95 Maraniss, David Washington Post]
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Box 5
<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/Systematic/2011-0415-S-Muscatine.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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First Lady's Office
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Lissa Muscatine
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2011-0415-S
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2011-0415-S-flotus-press-office-interview-transcripts-volume-v-10-19-94-04-10-97-binder-01-14-95-maraniss-david-washinton-post
7431941