Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990 TAG: 9003133576
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
He directed his defense secretary to provide funds from Pentagon budget reductions.
Bush also renewed his call for $500 million in assistance to Panama and said both Central American nations "need our help to heal deep wounds" after years of political and economic struggle.
Bush's 45-minute news conference coincided with a vote by the Soviet Congress granting Mikhail Gorbachev stronger powers as president. Bush said it would be inappropriate for him to pass judgment on the process of reform in the Soviet Union.
It was the first time in 10 days that Bush had met with reporters, and in fielding numerous questions, he said:
He remains opposed to higher taxes and Social Security limitations as a means to eliminate the budget deficit.
"Every president" wants to see interest rates lower, but denied the existence of a "bubbling war" with Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve.
He was disappointed that the Communist government in China has not made progress toward demo
Urged major-league owners and ballplayers to settle their labor dispute so the baseball season can begin as soon as possible.
Said he doesn't think a long-ago use of marijuana should disqualify a political candidate.
Bush also showed his zest for political combat when he said of House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, "I don't want to knock the man. Maybe he'll come up with a good idea one of these days."
Bush was asked about the telephone call he held several days go with the man who he thought - incorrectly - was Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani. The president admitted it was a "hoax," but said, "What's wrong with reaching out and touching someone."
"The hostages are at stake," he said.
Bush said things are going on in "back alleys" involving the fate of the eight American hostages. He stressed his determination to do all he could to free them.
The president opened his news conference with the announcement that he had signed an order lifting the five-year trade embargo that former President Reagan had imposed against the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega.
Ortega was defeated in last month's elections by opposition candidate Violetta Chamorro. Ortega told Vice President Dan Quayle in Chile on Monday that he would abide by the results of the elections and permit an orderly transition to democracy.
Bush called for creation of a "Fund for Democracy" to assist Nicaragua and Panama - where an American invasion force last year ousted dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega and installed a new government.
The president never mentioned the Contras, the rebels who received millions of dollars from the United States during the Reagan administration to fight the Sandinistas. He said "development and demilitarization, they go hand in hand."
The request includes about $45 million to help pay costs of relocating some 10,000 Contras and tens of thousands of family members from their camps along the Honduran border to homes inside Nicaragua, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Bush urged Congress to speed the aid on its way by April 5 and to join the administration in an effort at identifying Pentagon programs that would absorb the needed reductions "without having an unacceptable impact on national security."
The president paid tribute to the extraordinary worldwide move toward democracy in 1989, and said the drive for freedom "leaves us with a new challenge, how best to support newborn democracies."
"These nations need our help to heal deep wounds," he said.
On other topics, Bush responded with a blunt "no" when asked whether he would freeze Social Security benefits or raise taxes to reduce the federal deficit. A senior House Democrat made such proposals last weekend as part of a comprehensive deficit-cutting plan.
Asked if the administration would recognize a drive for independence by the Soviet Republic of Lithuania, Bush said, "We want to see the evolution of the control of the territory there."
Bush said the Soviet Union had not requested direct U.S. aid and he criticized Gephardt for proposing such assistance.
Responding to Gephardt's criticism that he was running an administration guided by public opinion polls, Bush said, "I don't want to knock the man. Maybe he'll come up with a good idea one of these days."
On a sensitive economic issue, Bush also declined to be drawn into speculation about whether he would reappoint Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose term expires next year. Some members of the administration have said Federal Reserve concerns about inflation have kept interest rates relatively high.
"Look, every president would like to see interest rates lower, there's no question," Bush said. "There's no bubbling war with Alan Greenspan." He said such disputes over economic policy are common in every administration.
Even before Bush formally unveiled the aid package, there was support in Congress for American assistance to Nicaragua.
"After 10 years of trying to destroy Nicaragua, we do have a responsibility to help democracy," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that doles out foreign aid.
"I may well agree with whatever the president's policy is there. But I don't think it is wise to be raising expectations by promising money we don't know whether we have," Leahy said.
The White House said $21 million left over from programs to assist the Contras and monitor the Nicaraguan elections would be used for emergency aid to Nicaragua while the larger package goes through Congress.
Panamanian President Guillermo Endara, installed after the U.S. invasion that ousted Noriega, is on a hunger strike perceived partly as a protest over the slow pace of U.S. aid to his country.
State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler noted Monday that $55 million in aid already was being used in Panama to rebuild damage from the invasion, create public works jobs and help establish a police force.
by CNB