Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Clinton plans summit soon on economy Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:13:22 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Clinton plans summit soon on economy \BY J. Jennings Moss \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The nation's economy will consume much of the transition effort of President-elect Bill Clinton, who said yesterday he will bring "some of the brightest people" to town for a pre-Christmas economic summit to discuss his options. Clinton spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers later described one of the purposes of the summit as conducting "an honest accounting of where the country is economically, what are the real economic indicators telling us." Asked if that meant looking to see if Republicans doctored the economic figures, she said, "It's one of the things I think we'll be looking at." After comments by transition aides Sunday that Mr. Clinton would convene an economic summit before taking office, aides said yesterday that they hoped it would occur before Christmas and that it would be an "audit" of the current economic picture. "I want to bring in some of the brightest people in the country from a broad range of backgrounds to talk to them about the gravity of the situation, deal with what our options are, get as many good ideas as I can," Mr. Clinton said as he left his office at the state Capitol. Asked whether that meant the economic situation was better or worse, Mr. Clinton noted that while overall unemployment has gone down, the manufacturing job picture remains grim and production is down. "There are a lot of very troubling signs in the economy. I think this is what the election was about," he said. "I just think it would be a very good thing for me and for the country to have two or three days where we really just focus on it, to give some people a chance to have their say to me directly and talk about what our options are." Clinton communications director George Stephanopoulos could not say whether all of Mr. Clinton's top economic advisers and the related Cabinet posts will be filled by the time of the summit. He did say the goal of the meeting is to define the problems and see if a consensus can be reached on solutions. "Whenever you get several economists in a room it's hard to get agreement, but we're going to do our best to try and outline the problems and see where consensus does exist we'll try and move on it. If there's no consensus, the president obviously has to decide the way to go," Mr. Stephanopoulos said. The bigger question for Mr. Clinton yesterday appeared to be the nuts and bolts of forming his government. In meetings with Vice President-elect Al Gore and transition director Warren Christopher, Mr. Clinton discussed setting a timetable for the transition and naming the rest of the members of the transition team. Mr. Stephanopoulos said not to expect any Cabinet appointments this week. Mr. Clinton's transition board, formed before the election and made up of high-level Democrats and Clinton friends, is scheduled to take part in a conference call today and is expected to convene in Little Rock sometime next week, Mr. Stephanopoulos said. As one part of the transition process, various "cluster groups" will be formed to study policy in such areas as the economy, national security, foreign policy, health care and agriculture, according to an Associated Press report. Another unanswered question is when Mr. Clinton will resign as Arkansas' governor. He met with Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and discussed a schedule for his departure, but neither man would say when that might occur. "We've worked out a schedule," Mr. Clinton said, adding that some issues still needed to be discussed and no definite date had been set. Mr. Clinton received congratulatory telephone calls yesterday from three world leaders - Germany's Helmut Kohl, Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and South Africa's Frederik de Klerk. The president-elect said he looked forward to meeting each of them as soon as possible, Mr. Stephanopoulos said. According to the spokesman, Mr. Clinton told Mr. Rabin that he supported the Middle East peace process and hoped there would be no delay in the talks; he discussed with Mr. Kohl the trade and security relationship between the United States and Germany but apparently did not talk about the dispute over tariffs; and he commended Mr. de Klerk for his progress on democratic reforms. Mr. Clinton still has several world leaders to contact this week, among them French President Francois Mitterrand, Saudi King Fahd, Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze and Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. President Bush stayed out of sight yesterday and met with Transportation Secretary Andrew Card for nearly an hour to discuss the transition to a Clinton administration. Clinton officials have yet to arrange a meeting with Mr. Card, who is managing the Bush side of the transition, White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. * This article is based in part on wire service reports. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM