Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. I might say, just sort of by way of information background, that the ESOP concept was established…”

“Thank you very much. I might say, just sort of by way of information background, that the ESOP concept was established in 1974, and since then, the number has grown from 200 to over 10,000. And there are an estimated 12 million ESOP participants that own $60 billion in stock in this country now. Participation in deferred profit-sharing plans has grown from 8.4 percent of the work force in 1980 to 18.3 percent in 1991. That's the last year for which we have any figures. But you can see that this is not an insubstantial percentage of the American people that are out there working in these kinds of environments. And again, I think it's important to point out, because we nearly never hear anything about it, that there are literally millions of people out there working in partnerships trying to make their companies more profitable, their lives better, and their country stronger. I think it's worth pointing out. I thank you, sir, very much. If I might ask you one just brief question because it leads in--I want to ask the Vice President to speak after you about an issue which has been a difficult one for us, and that is how we handle the downsizing of the Federal work force, because I think it's quite interesting. You hear a lot of talk about downsizing in the private sector and how bad it is. I guess that the United States Government in the last 3\1/2\ years has been the biggest downsizer in the country. And I know that you had to have a modest one at Kellogg. I'd like you to just explain how you handled it, if you might very briefly. [Mr. Langbo said that in recent cutbacks, management sat down with the union and agreed to make use of early retirement, severance pay, and voluntary transfers to other locations. He concluded that recent changes in accounting laws would no longer allow immediate deductions for employee education.]”