Bill Clinton: “The answer to your question is, I'm going to do what I can to avoid that. It's difficult, with a big Government deficit…”

“The answer to your question is, I'm going to do what I can to avoid that. It's difficult, with a big Government deficit like we have, to start a subsidy program. But there's no question--if you go back and look at the history of what happened in the eighties--and this is the same thing to me with farmers or anything else--we unilaterally, that is, all by ourselves without asking anybody else to do anything, cut our shipbuilding subsidy. Our major competitors either kept them the same or increased them. So what do you think the result was? I mean, predictably, if the government by artificial means in another country lowers the cost of production and people are going to buy the least expensive ship, America got the shaft. One of the things that we are doing at the present time is, by the way, reviewing our whole posture on all these shipping issues and especially in connection with California. As you probably know, I was out at the NASSCO yard during the campaign. They turned the whole place out for me--it was wonderful--just because of some specific issues they were interested in that I had taken a position on. On the question of the subsidy, I think there are two issues here, two possibilities: We can either have some sort of tax incentive for those companies, or in the alternative, we can put the subsidies for shippers on the table when we negotiate with the Japanese, with the other shipbuilders in the other countries. It can be a big issue. You know, I've been criticized for saying I wanted to bargain more toughly with some of our trading partners, but a lot of these folks are doing as well or better than we are now in some of these areas, and I think we have to be pretty firm. We don't have to fall out with the Japanese in the whole range of areas where we share the same values, we have security interests. I admire them and care a lot about them. But I think we have to have tough bargaining on the trade issues with all these countries. So we are trying to decide what the best way to go is. But the answer to your question is, I'll be sick 10 years from now if we're not making any ships in America. Small Business Loans”