George H.W. Bush: “The answer is no, but the answer is I've been diligently for the program. The program is mine. I'm the President; I set…”

“The answer is no, but the answer is I've been diligently for the program. The program is mine. I'm the President; I set the program. Kemp has been a superb advocate for homeownership, for enterprise zones, for the things that we believe really would have helped avoid some of the crisis in the cities. So I have been advocating it and supporting it and introducing it in the Congress all along. Even after the riots we had the Mayor of Los Angeles here, Tom Bradley; the Governor of the State; Peter Ueberroth, who is trying to bring jobs into the center city. They all supported strongly the enterprise zones. And it took weeks to get that passed even in the face of the riots. So now, in terms of will I increase spending, I can't pledge that. I don't want to be in any false colors. I want these programs there to bring jobs in the private sectors into the city. I want our ``Weed and Seed'' program, which is weeding out the criminal elements and then seeding the areas with hope and opportunity, to pass. But there's another big problem facing this country, and it is the deficit. I know that this is the year when everybody promises, I'm going to do this for that, each little interest group, each big interest group being pledged and promised to, but I can't do that because I am determined to fight to get this deficit down. So we've got good programs, and I think they'd make an enormous difference in the cities, and I hope you all can support them. Economic Plan”