Bill Clinton: “I'd like to see a resolution of this. This merger-- the Federal Trade Commission, which, as you know, is independent…”

“I'd like to see a resolution of this. This merger-- the Federal Trade Commission, which, as you know, is independent under our law, has ruled that this is clearly not a violation of our laws because there is only room for two big commercial manufacturers. And indeed, the commercial side of the McDonnell Douglas business has suffered with the rise of the European company, Airbus. The European antitrust laws are slightly different. Boeing has offered a good-faith resolution of this; they're trying to work through it. Our main concern is that only the antitrust considerations play a role in this decision and that we do everything we can to avoid a more political decision which would lead to an unfortunate trade conflict between the United States and Europe. And we're working hard to avoid that, and I've done quite a bit of work on it over the last 3 days and will continue to do so. I think there is a way to work this out, and I'm hopeful that by Wednesday when the Commission meets that an agreement will have been reached. Medicare”