Closing a two-day Western trip, President Clinton on Tuesday pledged to Los Angeles audiences his special commitment to help the California economy, while asking state residents to do their part for the economic plan he is pushing through Congress.
Clinton, in mobbed campaign-style stops in South-Central Los Angeles and at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys, asserted that the U.S. economy won’t recover until the nation’s largest state can pull itself out of its slump. “We can’t turn this economy around unless we’re going to lift California up,” Clinton told students at the community college.
The President also signaled his interest in California immigration problems, saying that he will soon pick a “compassionate but hard-headed” person to head the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He said he hopes to get Atty. Gen. Janet Reno’s recommendation for that post as early as this week.
Clinton, who has traveled out of Washington for part of the past two weeks trying to drum up support for his economic plan, visited a black-owned apparel store on South-Central’s Florence Avenue to illustrate his view that the riot-torn area can only be rebuilt through a joint effort of government and business. He used the community college stop to stress his advocacy of continually retraining workers to make them competitive in a world economy.
The Clinton road show has been part economics seminar and part campaign extravaganza, and his visit to Los Angeles was no exception.
At the community college, he sat on a wooden stool under flowering mimosa trees to field questions from students on education, jobs, immigration and other subjects. At the South-Central stop, he and Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown toured the store, then stripped off their suit jackets and ties and shot baskets for a few minutes with a group of youngsters.
The crowds were large and warm, but Clinton’s most impassioned defense of his program came when hecklers taunted him at the community college. To their chants “You broke your promise”–referring to his pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class–and “No new taxes,” the President rejoined:
“You know what the ‘no new tax’ crowd did for 12 years? They cut taxes on the rich, raised taxes on the middle class and left the country in a ditch,” he said. “The free lunch crowd has had their chance.”
He cited as proof of his commitment to California the efforts of Commerce Secretary Brown, who has visited the state seven times since January to help coordinate the government’s effort to help the economy. He said he had asked Brown to “map a specific plan to turn this economy around.”
The President told the college students he would like to help the state’s economy through increased aid for laid off defense workers and their communities, additional community policing and financial aid to offset immigration-related costs.
He made again a pitch for the central idea of his economic plan, that the country needs to cut its deficit while increasing spending–”investment”–for other purposes that will strengthen the economy over the long term.
In South-Central Los Angeles, Clinton visited The Playground, a community center and sporting goods store on Florence Avenue just one mile west of where rioting erupted last year. It was founded by a business person, a lawyer, a doctor and ex-gang members from the Crips. A basketball court was established in back so youths could play as well as buy merchandise.
While the store has received no federal aid, Clinton used it to illustrate his Administration’s redevelopment strategy, which also calls for the use of tax-advantaged “empowerment zones” to bring commerce to distressed areas.
After touring the store and meeting its owners, Clinton headed for the basketball court. He shed his coat, removed his shoes and socks and deposited the contents of his pockets in a shoe box.
In front of a phalanx of several dozen photographers, Leonard Baylor, 8, presented Clinton with a gift of size 13 sneakers.
“Thank you, Mr. President, for coming,” Leonard told the President. “Here, take these shoes.” Then, the boy said to the President: “Shoot some hoops with us?”
Baylor broke into tears–because he was overcome with emotion, a store owner later said. The President pulled Baylor close to comfort him.
Clinton pulled off his tie and pulled on athletic socks and the sneakers. Brown did the same. They then joined 18 youths on the court ranging in age from 6 to 17.
The President captained one team and Brown led another while a friendly crowd of about 200 as well as reporters and camera crews looked on.
Clinton, with shirttails flapping from the back of his baggy suit pants, missed his first two shots, then saved face by hitting from 10 feet out. Brown, however, swished from 20 feet away.
Clinton also grabbed five rebounds. “I made some good passes,” he said, but seemed to acknowledge that his commerce secretary stole the show, declaring, “Can Ron Brown shoot a jump shot or what?”
After the game, Clinton told the crowd: “I want everybody in America to know that there are people here in Los Angeles who believe that we can bring business to this area, that we can put people to work, if you have the help you need.”
“I wanted to come here today not just to have a little fun with a basketball, but to say to you and all of America that we’re going to have to rebuild this country from the grass roots up,” Clinton said. “This is an incredible untapped resource for America. If everyone in this country who wanted a job had one, we wouldn’t have half the problems we’ve got.”
Clinton said that he and Brown planned to go back to Washington to try to pass an economic program that will put “you back to work.”
The crowd in South-Central was clearly with him. Dorothy Redmond, a nursery school owner in the neighborhood, said: “I’m very encouraged. I am an entrepreneur of a small business and I think this is a step in the right direction.”
“I’m just speechless,” said Flora Lane, who traveled to South-Central from her home in the Wilshire district. “He is a person who cares about all people. I am for him 100%, plus his wife.”
But all the reviews of Clinton’s program weren’t favorable.
In Washington, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) characterized Clinton’s trip as “heading West while his poll numbers go South.”
“His West Coast public relations blitz is just another political make-over to try to convince people he’s cutting spending when he’s really breaking all world records for tax increases,” Dole said.
In Sacramento, the Wilson Administration released a report contending that Clinton’s five-year plan would cost Californians $11.6 billion more than their “fair share” of spending cuts and tax increases.
The state Department of Finance said it drew its figures from Clinton’s proposals for defense cuts, defense conversion and retraining, tax increases on personal income and energy, and tax credits for investment. The analysis also included estimates of the indirect effect of changes in spending and tax policy and a possible reduction in interest rates.
The study said it was assumed that “California will receive a disproportionate share of benefits included in the Clinton proposals–tax credits, investment spending and defense conversion spending.”
But those benefits, it said, will only partially offset the “dampening effect” of the defense cuts. Although California’s population is about 12% of the nation, the study said it appeared the state would absorb at least 25% of the cuts.
Overall, the report said, the plan would cost Californians $68.7 billion, or 14.6% of the total. Based on the state’s 12% share of the nation’s population, the “fair share” of the deficit-cutting burden would cost the state and its residents $57 billion, the report said.
Times staff writer Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story from Sacramento.
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