Bill Clinton: “Absolutely. Absolutely, it does. It should happen. Since I have been in office, we've worked very hard to dramatically…”

“Absolutely. Absolutely, it does. It should happen. Since I have been in office, we've worked very hard to dramatically increase the amount of assistance in terms of job training and in terms of alternative development of jobs for use of defense technologies, for commercial purposes, and in helping communities put themselves back together. I came in here with a real philosophy that we ought to be spending a lot of money every year on defense conversion and on other things that dislocated people who wanted to work. So last year we spent $500 million on defense conversion. This year we're going to spend much more. And we need to do more. Now, keep in mind, one of the things that constrains us now is the enormous Government deficit, which the Congress is normally willing to suspend in the case of an emergency. So that's one of the reasons these things happen more quickly. But we are moving toward investing more in communities and in workers and in new technologies. And it shouldn't take a natural disaster to get us to plan for and take care of the fundamental needs of our people. Natural Disasters and Insurance Mr. Jackson. Mr. President, Mother Nature really has socked it to us and given most of the Nation a devastating few months. As you read and study the reports and you watch the news, do you have an overall comment that you'd care to make about the way that citizens impacted by hurricanes, blizzards, floods, fires, and now earthquakes have responded to these disasters?”