Bill Clinton: “First of all, it is absolutely false. I intend to answer it in the letter that I write today, but since you gave me a…”

“First of all, it is absolutely false. I intend to answer it in the letter that I write today, but since you gave me a chance to do it, I'll answer it. Let's look at the facts here. Where is the politics? This Base Closing Commission made far more changes in the Pentagon plan than either any of the three previous base closing commissions, far more. They've been under a lot of political pressure. I understand that. I don't disagree with all the changes they made. They acknowledge--secondly, under the law they are supposed to take into account economic impact. Based on their report--which I have read, and I urge all of you to read it if you haven't; before you make any judgments about where there was political influence, I urge all of you to read it--they took 23 bases or realignments off that the Pentagon recommended off the list and then put 9 more on, 3 of which happen to be in California, with the biggest job loss by far in San Antonio at Kelly Air Force Base, rejecting the Defense Department's recommendation that instead of closing these 2 big Air Force depots, they take an across- the-board cut in all 5 of them. That's what they did. Apparently, in all of their deliberations, the only place where they took economic impact into account was at the Red River Depot on the border of Texas and my home State. It is clear that--I think they have a case there. It would have almost doubled unemployment in that community. But let's look at the facts on this politics. This is about economics. In the report itself, they acknowledge that at Kelly Air Force Base 60 percent of the employees are Hispanic, 45 percent of the Hispanics employed in the entire area work there, that it will have a devastating impact, and they were willing to shut down about 16,000 jobs, when there was another alternative that saved at least as much money, according to the Pentagon, or nearly as much, according to them. Secondly, in California, here are the facts. I have not seen these anywhere. I have not seen these anywhere. The law requires economic impact to be taken into account. Here are the facts. When this Base Closing Commission process started, California had 13 percent of the population, 15 percent of the people in military, 20 percent of the defense budget. In the first 3 base closings they sustained 52 percent of the direct job losses. We're not talking about indirect jobs; we're not talking about speculation--52 percent. In this recommendation the Pentagon hit them pretty hard, recommended closing Long Beach, a big facility. This Base Closing Commission, not satisfied with that, made a decision that they had to add back a lot of other jobs. So they decided to take almost all the jobs they took out, out of one place, San Antonio, Texas, and by closing 3 California bases, taking the California job loss in this round to almost 50 percent. Now, you tell me that my concern over that economic situation, when their unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, they have borne over 50 percent of the burden of the job loss, is political. My concern in San Antonio, Texas, where one decision could virtually wipe out the Hispanic middle class, is political, when there was another alternative that the Pentagon said was better for national security. I am tired of these arguments about politics. My political concern is the political economy of America and what happens to the people in these communities and are they being treated fairly. Now, I do not disagree with every recommendation the Base Closing Commission made, but this is an outrage. And there has been a calculated, deliberate attempt to turn this into a political thing and to obscure the real economic impact of their recommendations in San Antonio and California, which were made solely so they could put back a lot of other things. Now, let's not----”