STATE OF NEW YORK
EXECUTIVE CHAMBER
MARIO M. CUOMO, GOVERNOR
Press Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, December 20, 1991
For months I have focused my energies on dealing with the State's budget problem. I had hoped by now to have some resolution. But the Republicans have responded to every reasonable offer of compromise by the Assembly and the Governor, with new and predictably unacceptable demands, making it apparent they believe that, at least for the moment, their own purposes are best served by pushing the State closer to the brink of disaster.
If they persist, the damage to the State's credit could leave every local government and school district in jeopardy of losing its ability to meet its financial needs. At the very least, it would cost the taxpayers of New York millions of dollars and, one way or another, would damage all 18 million of New York's people.
It is my responsibility as Governor to deal with this extraordinarily severe problem.
Were it not, I would travel to New Hampshire today and file my name as a candidate in its presidential primary.
That was my hope, and I prepared for it.
But it seems to me I cannot turn my attention to New Hampshire while this threat hangs over the heads of the New Yorkers that I have sworn to put first. I asked for and won the responsibility to deal with their vital interests in the Governor's race of 1990.
The commitment I made then, to do all I could to protect New Yorkers from the kind of problem we now face, was not a commitment of convenience, to be set aside if and when I was offered another and grander opportunity for public service.
I have told Senator Marino that I expect him to have every member of his Senate here Monday morning to deal with my proposals to end this crisis. I will have further legislation for them to consider at that time.
I have instructed both houses that if necessary, I expect them to negotiate continuously until we have met the obligations we have imposed upon ourselves by oath.
Theoretically, at a point in the future when our gap has been closed and our budget process restored to reasonableness, I could then enter the remaining primaries and still be a contender for the presidency. But I accept the judgment of our national chairman that it would be in the best interest of the Democratic party that I abandon any such effort now so as to avoid whatever inconvenience and disruption to the process is created by the uncertain possibility of another candidacy.
I regard myself as highly privileged to serve the 18 million people of my State as Governor, for a third term.
But I would be less than honest if I did not admit my regret at not having the chance to run for President.
At the same time, I recognize that there are already in the field a number of excellent candidates that can move this nation toward a more inclusive, progressive and intelligent course. I will do all that I can to help them.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to all those who have worked so hard in recent days to prepare for a possible candidacy, especially Joe Grandmaison of New Hampshire and to the many who indicated they were prepared to support me.
Thank you.
Gov. Mario Cuomo (D-NY)
Press Conference
State Capitol
Albany, NY
December 20, 1991
For months as you know I've focused my energies on dealing with the state's budget problem. I had hoped by now to have some resolution. But the Republicans have responded to every reasonable offer of compromise by the Assembly and the governor with new and predictably unacceptable demands, making it apparent that they believe, at least for the moment, their own purposes are best served by pushing the state closer to the brink of disaster.
If they persist, the damage to the state's credit could leave every local government, every school district in this state, in jeopardy of losing its ability to meet its financial needs. At the very least it would cost the taxpayers of New York millions of dollars and one way or another would damage all 18 million of New York's people. The Republicans know this.
It's my responsibility as governor to deal with this extraordinarily severe problem.
Were it not, I would travel to New Hampshire today and file my name as a candidate in its presidential primary.
That was my hope, and I prepared for it.
But it seems to me I cannot turn my attention to New Hampshire while this threat hangs over the head of the New Yorkers that I've sworn to put first. I asked for and won the responsibility to deal with their vital interests in the governor's race of 1990.
The commitment I made then, to do all that I could do to protect New Yorkers from the kind of problem we now face was not a commitment of convenience to be set aside if and when I was offered another and grander opportunity for public service.
I have told Senator Marino that I expect him to have every member of his Senate here Monday morning to deal with my proposals to end this crisis. I will have legislation for them to consider at that time in addition to the legislation they've seen already.
I've instructed Speaker Weprin and Senator Marino that both houses, if necessary, should negotiate continuously until we have met the obligations that we have imposed upon ourselves by oath.
Theoretically, at a point in the future when our gap has been closed and our budget process restored to reasonableness, I could then enter the remaining primaries and still be a contender for the presidency. But I accept the judgment of the national chairman of our party, that it would be in the best interest of the Democratic Party that I abandon any such effort now, so as to avoid whatever inconvenience and disruption to the process is created by the uncertain possibility of another candidacy.
I regard myself personally as highly privileged to serve the 18 million people of my state as governor, for a third term.
But I would be less than honest if I did not admit to you my regret at not having the chance to run for president.
At the same time, I recognize that there are already in the field a number of excellent candidates that can move this nation toward a more inclusive, more progressive, more intelligent course. I will do all I can to help them.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to all of those who have worked so hard in recent days to prepare for a possible candidacy especially Joe Grandmaison of New Hampshire, who was prepared as early as a few hours ago, to make a filing with me. And I want to extend my thanks to the many, many hundreds even thousands who indicated that they were prepared to support me.
Thank you very much.
QUESTION: Governor, are you saying Republicans did in your presidential plans?
CUOMO: No.
QUESTION: But you said, you referred to the Republicans acting according to their own, following their own purposes. What were those purposes?
CUOMO: I'll settle for the words I used.
QUESTION: Governor, is this realistically the end of your presidential aspirations?
CUOMO: You'll have to make the analysis.
QUESTION: ...Can you tell us what time today you've decided that you're weren't running?
CUOMO; [ignores] Yeah, JJ.
QUESTION: Is this one of the greatest disappointments of your career?
CUOMO: It would be enormously ungrateful for me to talk about disappointments. I have said over and over just being governor was more of a privilege than I ever expected to receive and probably more of a privilege than I ever thought I deserved. It would have been nice to run for president. I— but it's difficult for me to complain in any form at all.
QUESTION: Do you think that the White House choreographed the Republican effort here?
CUOMO: I really would prefer not to speculate. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference. What's important is that we need to break the logjam. I have to do whatever I can do to avoid damage to this state. It would simply be a, an ugly contradiction for me to cause damage to the people of the state I swore to serve, telling them all the while that I was on a greater mission to preserve them in the future by fighting my way to Washington. That has a certain romance to it. And to some people, it is a stronger logic than the logic I chose. I thought very hard about it, and it seemed to me difficult to escape the responsibility to deal with the budget now. Had they made a budget, had it worked out well, it would have been different. But they didn't. I'm not going to assume anybody had perverse motivation. I'll leave that to God and their conscience. All I know is the fact I need to deal with it. It doesn't seem appropriate to walk away now and say, Well, that's all right. Maybe this is a an indication of an inability to make hard decisions, and maybe they'll drift this way until another July, and maybe our paper will become junk, and maybe the school districts won't be able to borrow, and maybe there'll be a bankruptcy of New York State, but I need to pursue the presidency. It just didn't seem to come out right, and I told the media that over and over in an anticipatory way, when I said you need to deal with one impediment and that is the budget, and we weren't able to do it.
Fred?
QUESTION: ...time you made your final decision and if it was any one or two points that led you to reach the conclusion.
CUOMO: Doesn't work that way. It worked exactly the way I told you it would. You get all the facts. You decide when you have to decide. I had to decide as a practical matter to let Joe Grandmaison know, who was waiting in New Hampshire. I had to be polite to him. Couldn't wait until after five o'clock, when the filing date occurred, because that would have been—would have at least lacked graciousness for all those people in New Hampshire who were prepared to help you. It's difficult enough to say to them, I'm sorry, it didn't work out. They don't understand the budget. Many of them will have doubts for a long time as to what happened because they don't realize the complexities here. And so you set a deadline for yourself. You owe it to him. And for the media, you should let them know before the six o'clock news or whatever it is that they're interested in—not that I'm particularly eager to see the story all over the world. But, and then you gather all the facts, and you make your judgement.
QUESTION: ...there was a time? Did you finally decide that's it, I'm not going to go?
CUOMO: Again, Fred, as we said over and over, you need to get all the information you can. The last bits of information—those of you who have spent the last delightful couple of nights here observing from out of town—was what is the legislature doing? And I must tell you, there must have been four or five or six times when we went back to the Senate looking for some glimmering that they would be at all reasonable and even Saul Weprin, the indefatigably optimistic Saul Weprin, had to say at one point these guys just don't want to do anything for now. But you couldn't quit on it. You couldn't say that prematurely. And so I spoke to Ralph Marino as early as a couple of hours ago. After the last call to talk with Ralph Marino, I called Drew Zambelli [top aide to Cuomo] and said I'm gonna write a statement, there is no alternative here. And I wrote a statement.
QUESTION: ...campaign...
CUOMO: Whatever the party wants. The party, Ron Brown, said that the best thing for the party is for me to make clear now that if we settled the budget in a month or a week, it's too late, that this should be some kind of definitive deadline, and that's what we'll treat it as. He believes that's in the best interest of the party. I'll accept that. You don't like to suspect that you could even be cause for inconvenience to anybody. I don't like reading about people, unnamed people from the west, saying they're waiting for Cuomo. So that won't happen now. We'll make it clear to them that I won't be pursuing that option.
QUESTION: Governor, does it pain you that you may have missed a moment in history for yourself and the country?
CUOMO: I will work toward that level of egoism. I haven't arrived at it yet though.
QUESTION: Governor, would you accept a draft from the convention in mid-July?
CUOMO: Oh no, now see we went all through that in 1987. As a matter of fact somebody sent the book, Quotable Cuomo, with a baseball hat. And I turned—. From Buffalo.
BACK OF ROOM: Down in front.
CUOMO: Okay. [ducking]
[pointing] You, he means, will you get down please or I'll have to get down? Thank you.
The, I turned in the book, the Quotable Cuo— Buffalo, somebody in Buffalo did a book. And the page I turned to happened to be presidency 1987, and the quote, I think at the top of the page, or maybe the second one on the page was on exactly that subject. And what it said is you don't, you know you don't get drafted for the presidency. The process is primaries. The person who— As a matter of fact, my position hasn't changed since 1987. The same question came up. I said whoever wins the primaries in my opinion, ought to be the candidate. And as a matter of fact, what I said to the Democratic Party was, everybody ought to agree now not to play games at the convention. Whoever comes out first, whoever it is Jesse or, or Mike Dukakis, or Al Gore, that ought to be the candidate. That was my position. And I don't know what the rules are for other people, but that seems to make sense to me.
I think the important thing, Jay, I think the important thing, is what I've been saying from the beginning. I honestly believe that especially now, especially this year, the message is more important than anything.
And I think the second point to remember is that the message must be a responsible, complete, persuasive one. You can't and shouldn't win with a slogan.
I think the third point should be that you ought not to think of this election as a seesaw, that if President Bush goes down, the Democrats will automatically go off. I don't think that's true. I think that you're going to have to earn the presidency by coming forward with an economic plan and other things that are real. I don't believe we've done that yet.
To swap tax cuts with the other side, to say they want a capital gains tax, we want a middle class tax cut. Both of those ideas are excellent. Together they are not an economic plan that will make a difference. Did you hear what Mr. Greenspan said today? What is it going to be, three and a half percent interest? That is not a plan either.
You need Federal Reserve money, $25 billion into the banks, you need tax cuts, you need net investment tax credits, you need investments in infrastructure, you have to get some stimulus right away with an infrastructure plan and jobs, and then you have to deal with the deficit—the hard part; you have to cut entitlements the way we're cutting entitlements at the state level.
So I think the important thing is, you need a message. You need not to think of this as a seesaw. You need an intelligent, complete message, and whoever does that well should be the candidate. I don't think you have to be 41 years old, and I don't think you have to be this or that. You have to be persuasive on the message, and I think that's what should come out of the primaries, and that's what should come out of the convention. And when we get that, we'll win; we'll win, going away.
Stan and then Mark.
QUESTION: If the Senate were to come back on Monday or Sunday or whatever and you were to be able to strike some sort of an agreement either on a [inaud.] why is he too late then?
CUOMO: You know that I am constantly resisting arbitrariness. I really don't—and I get into trouble with some people because of that, because they call it shilly shallying or constant mirrors or Gail Collins got off a great line. She met a guy who says he hates living here because he has to listen to that kind of talk all the time. But normally I, I do what I can to underscore subtlety and to underscore nuances because that's what life is, right.
But there do come times too when you have to draw some lines for convenience sake. That's what Ron Brown is saying. He's not saying, there's no logic, Mario, to your hanging around. He's saying is look, the process is a crude and effective process as it is. We don't want any diversions. We want to get behind one candidate as early as possible, therefore cut it off. And so by saying— And his point was let's use New Hampshire as a deadline. You can't argue with that in logic or law, but I accept it. And I understand the intelligence of it from his political point of view. Get Cuomo and everybody else out of the way, and let's concentrate on the field we have. And I am no way offended by that suggestion, and it's one that I will accommodate.
Mark?
QUESTION: Other than the budget, can you explain a bit what other reasons, what other reasons there might have been [inaud.] not to go for it?
CUOMO: Mark, I really did put everything I wanted to say in this statement. I wrote it myself. It's nice and simple and neat.
QUESTION: ...Roger Ailes...
CUOMO: Roger is not in the race. I don't know the other guys. Roger— I would love— I ran against him three times. I told Roger the last time I spoke to him—you call him up and ask him this—. He said what are you going to do if you don't run? And I said I'm going to set up a political consultant firm, Roger, and my slogan is going to be I'm Good for What Ailes You, and I'm going to spell it Ailes, and I'm going to run against your candidates.
QUESTION: Governor, did you call Ron Brown?
CUOMO: No.
Marcia.
QUESTION: Governor, do you plan to continue to speak out against President Bush and Republican policies?
CUOMO: Well it's interesting. I, you know the New York Times had a policy that if I'm not a candidate I'm not allowed to speak on some of these issues. I couldn't get coverage for them. I don't know. I tried getting an answer on that one today. I spoke to one of the editors there, and said what is the policy? Does this mean that, you know, there's no point in my saying what you should do with Haiti because I'm only petty official? I think probably even if they don't want to print it, I'll continue to say what I think is appropriate, all within the context of being governor.
QUESTION: ...forceful critic of the Bush administration...
CUOMO: No, I don't want to be a forceful critic; I want to be a constructive force. And that's what my economic plan is. It's easy to criticize. That's why I say Marcia, a seesaw is not enough. You shouldn't win because he loses. You should win because you're right. You have to go to the American people and persuade them that you have a plan to put people to work, areal plan. Is it money in infrastructure, terrific. How do you pay for it? How do you put people to work?
General Motors is going to put 75,000 people out of work. 75,000 people. Almost as many families are going to have to go home and say, sorry, I can no longer earn bread for this house. I have to beg for unemployment, then I have to hope they don't run out, the people who are driving the Porsches, that they don't tell me there's not enough money for me on unemployment. Then I have to find a state where they're not going to cut off the welfare on me. Then if we're lucky, we won't starve. 75,000 of them. And you're answering by saying we're going to give you 300 bucks back. For what? For what? You're giving welfare people $400 for shelter and an apartment in New York City and food.
You need answers, specific answers, not sweet speeches. How are you going to put me to work? How are you going to educate my child in college and how are you going to pay for it? Not enough to say I'm going to spend money on this and spend money on it. Anybody can do a checkbook if you only have one side. You've got to spend it and you have to pay for it. That's very hard. The pay for it part is what this legislature cannot do. The pay for it part is what the Congress will not do. We'll give your capital gains tax cut. Terrific say the rich people. We'll give you a middle class tax cut. Wonderful, say the middle class people. Meanwhile, how do you pay for it? What we need is a dose of plain truth. So we don't need a lot of criticism. The criticism is easy. You blew it President Bush.
Here, you want the criticism. I'll give it to you in one line. And I didn't write it, a better man than I did by far, one of the most notable and important Americans in modern history—won a whole campaign by summing it up for the American people simply. He looked at Jimmy Carter and then he looked at the American people and said one question, Is your life better today than it was four years ago? And that was it. That's the question for President Bush. Is your life better today than it was four years ago? And the answer is so dramatically clearer that the contest is over if you're looking for criticism, but now you have to answer another question. Great. He lost. How do you win? What will you do to make my life better? Be specific and tell me how you pay for it. That's the contest.
That's what we're doing the state incidentally, Marcia. That's what every state does. That's the difference between states and the federal government. Pete Wilson does it. Lowell Weicker does it and gets his name on bumper stickers. You know, get rid of Saddam. They cross out Saddam. Get rid of Weicker. Why? Because he's telling the people of Connecticut the truth. Happens to every governor in this country, because they all have to balance budgets. Now it has to happen in Washington. It is judgment day in Washington. And so far, nobody, not the Democrats or the Republicans are willing to acknowledge it.
QUESTION: Governor, do you think that your deliberations have had any impact on the Democratic race up to this point?
CUOMO: I have no idea.
QUESTION: Can you assess the Democratic presidential field in light of the fact that in seriously considering a bit of your own, you must have been convinced you could have brought something to the campaign that was missing. How would you assess the field in light of that?
CUOMO: It's a good field. I think it's a good field. I think there are a number of really good candidates in it. I think it's extremely early. I think you've only had the best of my knowledge one public presentation nationally on the issues. You need to get more specific about the answers.
What do you do about the economy? This is a subject I'm familiar with because we wrote a book on competitiveness a couple of years ago with some of the best— Can I get a chance to do the press conference, and then then we'll finish it, and you can do what you want, okay?
We did a book in 1987 on competitiveness; we're doing another book now. It's very, very difficult to put together a whole economic plan that deals intelligently with both sides of the checkbook. So far, we haven't gotten one from the Republicans or from the Democrats. And until you get that, the campaign hasn't really started because you haven't gotten to the real answers. And that's only one. That's only the economy.
What do you do about so called foreign policy? Now there is no foreign policy that's totally divorced from economic policy. How do you feel about bringing Lee Iacocca to Japan? I think it's a truly dumb idea. You're gonna bring the auto executives to Japan to say to the Japanese auto executives, Hey, look, I only made $20 million dollars last year. You have to stop fooling around with this competition, because I want to make more. What are you bringing the auto executives for? You're the President of the United States. Sit down and say I'm here for the poor people. I'm here for the people who are out of work. I'm here for the big steel workers with a thick fingers who can't handle computers. I'm here for all the disoriented, all the disaffected, all the disadvantaged, not the people making 20 million. I want jobs for my people.
I brought you back to life here in Japan. We took care of you for a long time. Give me a break. Give me something to go home with. And if you don't, I'm not going to be able to start— stop the protectionism. You need to discuss those issues. What are you going to do about Haiti? Don't give me this stuff about you won a war in Iraq. I know you won a war in Iraq. What's the difference between Kuwait and Haiti? So those are the questions we haven't gotten to.
QUESTION: What did your family think the decision..."
QUESTION: If there have been any people, fundraisers or backers out there, waiting on your decision, would you urge them now to get involved in one of the other campaigns?
CUOMO: I—You know, I will do what I have done from the beginning and that is say to them, you should follow your own instincts with candidates. I think most of them want to have a horse if you will. Most people want to have a horse and that's what they'll be free to do.
QUESTION: ...most people, particularly Democrats, say it's not enough to talk about the economy, talk about Haiti...but it's irresponsible not to be a candidate and deliver that message.
CUOMO: That would be a compliment so overblown when applied to me that I don't expect to receive it and I would quickly return it to the person who offered it. I mean to have somebody suggest that you're so important that you had to be a candidate. I mean, that's that's just too much for me to accept. And I don't think there's any evidence of that. It's very flattering. It's nice to hear. You have six good candidates. Well, somebody says I have a poll with your name in it. So what? What does a poll mean? They had a poll that told you George Bush was unbeatable. What was that six months ago? And when it happened, I stood at this podium and told people in this room. So did Winston Churchill, so did Kohl. Kohl was at 90 and seven months later or so he was at 39.
Forget polls. They don't mean anything. They really don't. They're a snapshot in time, and time disappears instantly. As soon as you do a poll, it changes the poll. As soon as you said to people, it's President Bush 48, Cuomo 43—which is the poll they mentioned to me—that immediately changes the reality. If indeed it was ever anything like 48-43, as soon as some Republicans saw that they say, Oh my God, I didn't realize George was in such trouble. [claps] I'm back with the President. And others said, Gee, I thought Cuomo was ahead. He's behind. I don't want to be with a loser. I'm with the President. You cannot calculate all of that. So the polls don't mean anything. What you need is a message. There are plenty of messages out there to deliver. What you need is someone who can deliver the good message. They have at least six good potential...messages.
QUESTION: Do you think that if you had run a campaign that you would have been able to become the Democratic nominee and that you would have been able to win the race?
CUOMO: You'll never know that. I keep thinking about that, if I had stayed in baseball. I wonder if I would have made money?
Yeah.
QUESTION: ...vice president?
CUOMO: Jan, if you run for vice president, I'll consider it, okay
QUESTION: A month ago, Brad Johnson and others just. Governor.
COUMO: Excuse me, I'm talking to my friend [inaud.] I did that once. I did Lieutenant Governor. That's like a baby vice president, pardon me, Stan [Lundine]. Ask Stan if he would do it.
QUESTION: Governor, are you telling John Marino and Brad Johnson to cease all efforts to locate fundraisers in other states or to check primary dates or whatever? Is that all that over?
CUOMO: I just hoping. Who was it? John Marino and who?
QUESTION: John Marino, Brad Johnson, Mike [inaud].
CUOMO: I'm afraid they may cease talking to me, so I'm not worried about their, you know, maintaining energetic efforts on behalf of a phantom candidacy. That's just not real.
Joel. Dan, we'll get everybody you'll see. I'll outwait you, wait and see.
Dan?
QUESTION: Last month you told The Washington Post that I believe I can make the case against Bush better than anyone. By not running—
CUOMO: Who quoted me that?
QUESTION: Lally Weymouth.
CUOMO: Oh, Lally's right. Okay, Lally's right.
QUESTION: Given that statement, Governor, aren't you today by not running, relegating the Democratic Party to at best their second best candidate?
CUOMO: No. No. I said that— If I had to defend it— Do I have to defend it?
Okay, if I had to defend it, I would say to you I said it as a non candidate. Non candidates speak more freely, more easily and often more effectively because of the lack of constraints than candidates.
QUESTION: Do you think there's anybody that can make the case against Bush better than you?
CUOMO: Almost anybody. You could do it, Joel. Anybody.
QUESTION: Couldn't you solve the economic malaise described in this state as well as the rest of this country better from the national [inaud.] of the presidency, than you could as the governor of your state?
CUOMO: Yes. Correct. Yes. Definitely.
Well, because there's a budget to deal with, and I swore and obligation to deal with it.
Yeah, if I were not governor, or even if our budget problem was just a reflection of everyone else's budget problem, which we had earlier this year. We have a different situation now because the Republicans did this to us in 1990. They drove us down to a level where if they drive us any lower, we're in danger of becoming junk. If you become junk, then it's not just a question of having had your temporary embarrassment from a reduced rating that no sane layperson understands anyway. It actually threatens the ability of the school districts to borrow. Now if you can imagine a business that cannot open its doors unless the bank shows up in the morning and says, Hey, here's a check for the foodstuffs you need to sell today. That's what the school districts are. If they cannot borrow, there is chaos. Then you all rush back to Albany and say, shall we do a mini Mac? Shall we go to the Japanese for borrowings, and all over the country there's a headline that says New York nightmare.
This is, the implications here. There are people in this room who understand it. There are staff people who understand it. When I say it, they nod their heads, they say that's correct. But there's not a whole lot of lay people. Unfortunately for me, I understand it better than almost anybody. And that's the reality of it. And it's not something that would go away. It's not something I could toss off cavalierly in Indiana, and say, well, that's really George Bush's nightmare. That wouldn't be fair. It would be a question of my having failed to get the legislature to agree. But it was a Republican legislature. So what? I'm the governor; you're supposed to even be able to deal with Republicans. It's your obligation. And you don't deal with it by running away from it and seeking a still higher perch. You fail at that level, okay, you fail.
Now I wish I could see it another way. This is not a comfortable analysis for me to be honest with you. I mean I— and I can make the case pretty well on almost anything. And I tried to make myself come out better on this. I just didn't succeed.
I can't— you're a disembodied voice.
QUESTION: ...with News Channel 13. Will you now contact the people who you have been lining up in the event of a candidacy—?
CUOMO: I haven't contacted anybody to begin with.
They're free. Write it down. Free.
QUESTION: All the people who might have been waiting for you...?
CUOMO: Free. All the people who might have been waiting for me are free.
QUESTION: ...in the hall say he's not running now, but you know the convention is going to be in New York State. You just someone who's not running can speak more freely than someone who is running. Do you sort of stay as a little ghost in the background if here's no clear consensus in the six out there. Everybody clamors, where's Mario now?
CUOMO: Won't happen. Shouldn't happen. Last time they didn't even let me speak at the convention. This time they suggested I not be invited. Tip O'Neill, Tip O'Neill said if he's not a candidate, he ought not to be invited, and Tip O'Neill is a friend. I shudder to think what my enemies are saying.
I can't see you—
QUESTION: You said that theoretically at a later date if the budget is solved you might be able [inaud.]
CUOMO: That's right. I eliminated that theoretical possibility.
QUESTION: ...you're out of it completely?
CUOMO: It could happen that in 10 days, finally, the Senate Republicans come to their senses.
Did the Assembly pass the DRP today? Assembly pass the DRP?
It's possible that within 10 days, they'll patch the current budget. I hope so because if not, we're going to get devastated by the rates. But that's still gonna leave us with the next budget. And what you have seen so far. Seven weeks what you've seen is a total inability to deal with hard problems. We saw it last spring. It's going to be harder this time. That's why one of the things I'm going to do on Monday is ask them to vote on the Timely Budget Bill. If you're one day late, you don't get paid. No check for the governor, the lieutenant governor, the controller, no check for any legislator. I want them to vote on it. Monday. And if they have the guts to stand up and say to the people of this state, don't worry about it. You won't need any bill like this. We're going to act very swiftly. Then they will set a new record for hypocrisy and they will look ridiculous. I want to see them stand up and say don't worry about it. We'll do it on time this time. What are you talking about? We had to beg you just to get you to the room. So, uh the. Well that's it, go ahead.
QUESTION: Governor, what about your family? Is Andrew...?
CUOMO: You know my mother has a wonderful expression. between now and then [Italian] Which means, very bad Italian, between now and then a pope will be born. It means that everything happens. You get 96 is an eon away; at least one eon, possibly an eon and a quarter.
QUESTION: Governor is your family totally in agreement with your decision. Will we see Andrew come out again and maybe say [inaud.] if the climate gets better here the state?
CUOMO: He never said it the first time. I'm not gonna talk about my family's opinions because they speak for themselves. They barely let me speak if you want to hear the truth.
QUESTION: Governor do you want to get involved in the presidential campaign in any capacity, either picking a candidate or...?
CUOMO: Any capacity, any capacity I'll be useful.
QUESTION: Did you read anything in particular that you'd like to tell us about in the last 24 hours other than budget documents to help you make this decision?
CUOMO: I'm sorry, John. Did I did I read anything?
QUESTION: ...read anything last night? Consulted any...Lincoln?
CUOMO: A little book by Silesians. But I do this all the time, John, you know, I'm always leafing. We've got books on quotes. Favorite books. I got Moynihan, Teilhard [phon.], not that I put them in the same category. You know, and I look through books, so I do that all the time, especially if I'm trying to think things through. I've got to Grolier's encyclopedia, which I recommend to all of you. If you're tired of the Britannica, if you don't like British spelling, if you don't like small print, if you don't like exotic birds, and you want to get closer to the heart of the matter, get the Grolier's encyclopedia. They say it's everywhere from eight years old, I think, to college. It is a terrific encyclopedia. And I looked through that. I look through Grolier's. I cannot say it gave me any inspiration. I looked through quotable quotes or whatever, the Cuomo book, and found the one on— So I looked through the things but I don't know what effect they had?
QUESTION: Governor, was this decision more difficult than your decision four years ago not to run and if so why?
CUOMO: Four years ago, I never did anything like this. Four years ago, as I recall, it was Marc Humbert [AP] and a bunch of guys on the G1. He quit, Marc? Where's Marc? Oh, he's filed a story, I'm going to say something hot now. We were on a plane, the G1, talking; I don't know if Joel was there. But somebody said, You really ought to do something on the process. I said, Well, I'm really not interested. Well, shouldn't you talk to somebody? I said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give it thought for a couple of weeks, and then I'll give you a story. And within the two weeks, I decided that I should talk to some experts.
So I talked to two people, two people I had never spoken with before, certainly not at any length. Kirk O'Donnell, because they told me he was terrific and I knew him by reputation, and Bob Shrum, about whom I had heard wonderful things and whose material I had read for a long time. And I called them both out of the blue, and I said would you talk to a neophyte about how the politics works? Not only did they talk to me, they came up to Albany, and I think they each spoke to me for at least five hours, I think Shrum was closer to seven. And bottom lines were, even if I were otherwise suited for this candidacy, what would I have to do in Iowa, etcetera? They said well you have to be at least 50 days in Iowa. I came and I told the press that's it, can't be done. So that was all there was to it. I didn't make any thorough consideration.
Here starting on October 11 I did it differently for whatever reason. Joel Benenson [phon.] and I talked just a little bit about what the reason was. Put that aside, starting on October 11, I went through it, the way you're going through it if you were exploring any complicated, difficult subject. What are the requirements? What price do you have to pay? What does it mean to your family? What capacity do you need? What do you have to know? What do you have to be able to do? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? I did all of that, and disposed of that very, very easily. Until I got to one question, and that is what does it mean to the state?
Especially in the budget context. Everything but the budget is relatively easy to handle. I have the State of the State practically written. Mary Ann Crotty and her people are working on it. She's given me her third draft. The third draft is very, very strong. We could, we could do it in two days. So the State of the State is just about set. The budget, although we started very late, [inaud.] is in very good shape because all the work we've done with a 15-month plan really helps us with the 12 month plan. So all of that work is done. What else do you do you? Do deal with the legislature? There's going to be virtually no legislative session this year; they're so eager to go out and hide, you know, in this year of horrors for elected officials, that, what they'll do is a few good bills and then escape. So there is nothing really standing in the way although then the budget problem, and that's what I said to you, and that's what I said to people. And they give you that blank look. Well, there's a federal government and a state government; you've got a rinky-dinky budget problem. What, what's the problem? Well it's a very severe problem.
But all of that I did this time, Dan. None of it. None of it in 1987.
QUESTION: Did you consult with members of your [inaud.] If so how did they advise you?
CUOMO: We don't do it that way. We do a lot of it by osmosis. We do a lot of it by shrugs.
QUESTION: ...still alive or do you feel like we just got to do it immediately.
CUOMO: ...plan is where it has been from the beginning. A wonderful, wonderful idea. I'm going to lose weight. There's a terrific idea. Maybe 30 pounds. Wonderful. That's in the category of I'm going to lose 30 pounds. They both said, Let's lose 30 pounds. I said terrific. Meanwhile, you're eating sundaes and eating gyros. You're not gonna lose 30 pounds. And that's where the 15 month plan is.
QUESTION: ...signal that were willing to negotiate?
CUOMO: We don't need any more signals. You know, when a man sticks a dagger in your shoulder. You don't need to wait for another signal before you cover your heart.
QUESTION: You say that— You've always said that the budget was the chief obstacle, and today you're saying it was pretty much the only obstacle.
CUOMO: I think I said that. I Excuse me. I think I said that. Pretty much the only, the only substantial .... I always left a little room because you should.
QUESTION: I'm just curious whether there were any personal reservations, hesitations, fears that you can tell us about to give us a little insight...?
CUOMO: No, only the possibility of the ego trip that you speculated about. If you exclude that I was on some kind of ego trip, which you suggested as a possibility, then we've covered them all.
QUESTION: ...Senator Marino?
CUOMO: John.
QUESTION: ...why wait 'tll 90 minutes before the deadline to file in New Hampshire?
CUOMO: Because the budget is always at loggerheads for several weeks. The budget always starts that way. John, you have to remember this is not Washington. The process is altogether different than it is in Washington and has been in Washington for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, I suspect it was that way— Well it's hard to say how it was here because you had a legislature that was basically controlled by the governor for 16 years.
But here the process is one of the governor, a different party from one house at least of the legislature for the last lot of years, delivering a budget, and then engaging immediately and almost constantly in a series of wrestling negotiations. That's what happens. Especially in the hard times of the last few years, it has been a very difficult, bruising set of negotiations. We have been late seven years in a row. The first two years of my administration we were on time, but the last seven the legislature has gotten back to us late. There was nothing unusual about the early period of struggle. Also, there were the regular reassurances by the legislature that this time they intended to do it on time.
I see you're getting uneasy. I'm going to end this now. Thank you very much.
EXECUTIVE CHAMBER
MARIO M. CUOMO, GOVERNOR
Press Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, December 20, 1991
STATEMENT BY GOVERNOR
MARIO M. CUOMO
For months I have focused my energies on dealing with the State's budget problem. I had hoped by now to have some resolution. But the Republicans have responded to every reasonable offer of compromise by the Assembly and the Governor, with new and predictably unacceptable demands, making it apparent they believe that, at least for the moment, their own purposes are best served by pushing the State closer to the brink of disaster.
If they persist, the damage to the State's credit could leave every local government and school district in jeopardy of losing its ability to meet its financial needs. At the very least, it would cost the taxpayers of New York millions of dollars and, one way or another, would damage all 18 million of New York's people.
It is my responsibility as Governor to deal with this extraordinarily severe problem.
Were it not, I would travel to New Hampshire today and file my name as a candidate in its presidential primary.
That was my hope, and I prepared for it.
But it seems to me I cannot turn my attention to New Hampshire while this threat hangs over the heads of the New Yorkers that I have sworn to put first. I asked for and won the responsibility to deal with their vital interests in the Governor's race of 1990.
The commitment I made then, to do all I could to protect New Yorkers from the kind of problem we now face, was not a commitment of convenience, to be set aside if and when I was offered another and grander opportunity for public service.
I have told Senator Marino that I expect him to have every member of his Senate here Monday morning to deal with my proposals to end this crisis. I will have further legislation for them to consider at that time.
I have instructed both houses that if necessary, I expect them to negotiate continuously until we have met the obligations we have imposed upon ourselves by oath.
Theoretically, at a point in the future when our gap has been closed and our budget process restored to reasonableness, I could then enter the remaining primaries and still be a contender for the presidency. But I accept the judgment of our national chairman that it would be in the best interest of the Democratic party that I abandon any such effort now so as to avoid whatever inconvenience and disruption to the process is created by the uncertain possibility of another candidacy.
I regard myself as highly privileged to serve the 18 million people of my State as Governor, for a third term.
But I would be less than honest if I did not admit my regret at not having the chance to run for President.
At the same time, I recognize that there are already in the field a number of excellent candidates that can move this nation toward a more inclusive, progressive and intelligent course. I will do all that I can to help them.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to all those who have worked so hard in recent days to prepare for a possible candidacy, especially Joe Grandmaison of New Hampshire and to the many who indicated they were prepared to support me.
Thank you.
Ed. note: Gov. Cuomo read the
prepared statement above, which he noted he had
written himself. He adhered fairly close to the
text, and it took a bit more than four minutes to go
through it. He then answered questions for more
than half an hour. Reporters queried whether the
decision was “realistically the end of your
presidential aspirations?” (“You’ll have to make that
analysis.”) and whether he felt he had “missed a
moment in history for yourself, for the country?” (“I
will work toward that level of egoism. I haven’t
arrived at it yet, though.”) Cuomo said he
wanted to accomodate DNC chairman Ron Brown's desire
to draw a line with the New Hampshire primary, and he
emphasized the need for Democratic candidates to
develop a strong message. Cuomo said that in
contrast to 1987, when he also ruled out a
presidential run, he had given the matter more
extended consideration this time. He
stated, "Starting on October 11, I went through it,
the way you're going through it if you were exploring
any complicated, difficult subject." The budget
situation proved insurmountable. In the press
conference one also see some of Cuomo's humor and
interesting discursions, for example musing what might
have been if he had stayed in baseball or proclaiming
the merits of Grolier's encyclopedia.
Gov. Mario Cuomo (D-NY)
Press Conference
State Capitol
Albany, NY
December 20, 1991
[Democracy in
Action Transcript | C-SPAN
Video]
For months as you know I've focused my energies on dealing with the state's budget problem. I had hoped by now to have some resolution. But the Republicans have responded to every reasonable offer of compromise by the Assembly and the governor with new and predictably unacceptable demands, making it apparent that they believe, at least for the moment, their own purposes are best served by pushing the state closer to the brink of disaster.
If they persist, the damage to the state's credit could leave every local government, every school district in this state, in jeopardy of losing its ability to meet its financial needs. At the very least it would cost the taxpayers of New York millions of dollars and one way or another would damage all 18 million of New York's people. The Republicans know this.
It's my responsibility as governor to deal with this extraordinarily severe problem.
Were it not, I would travel to New Hampshire today and file my name as a candidate in its presidential primary.
That was my hope, and I prepared for it.
But it seems to me I cannot turn my attention to New Hampshire while this threat hangs over the head of the New Yorkers that I've sworn to put first. I asked for and won the responsibility to deal with their vital interests in the governor's race of 1990.
The commitment I made then, to do all that I could do to protect New Yorkers from the kind of problem we now face was not a commitment of convenience to be set aside if and when I was offered another and grander opportunity for public service.
I have told Senator Marino that I expect him to have every member of his Senate here Monday morning to deal with my proposals to end this crisis. I will have legislation for them to consider at that time in addition to the legislation they've seen already.
I've instructed Speaker Weprin and Senator Marino that both houses, if necessary, should negotiate continuously until we have met the obligations that we have imposed upon ourselves by oath.
Theoretically, at a point in the future when our gap has been closed and our budget process restored to reasonableness, I could then enter the remaining primaries and still be a contender for the presidency. But I accept the judgment of the national chairman of our party, that it would be in the best interest of the Democratic Party that I abandon any such effort now, so as to avoid whatever inconvenience and disruption to the process is created by the uncertain possibility of another candidacy.
I regard myself personally as highly privileged to serve the 18 million people of my state as governor, for a third term.
But I would be less than honest if I did not admit to you my regret at not having the chance to run for president.
At the same time, I recognize that there are already in the field a number of excellent candidates that can move this nation toward a more inclusive, more progressive, more intelligent course. I will do all I can to help them.
Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to all of those who have worked so hard in recent days to prepare for a possible candidacy especially Joe Grandmaison of New Hampshire, who was prepared as early as a few hours ago, to make a filing with me. And I want to extend my thanks to the many, many hundreds even thousands who indicated that they were prepared to support me.
Thank you very much.
QUESTION: Governor, are you saying Republicans did in your presidential plans?
CUOMO: No.
QUESTION: But you said, you referred to the Republicans acting according to their own, following their own purposes. What were those purposes?
CUOMO: I'll settle for the words I used.
QUESTION: Governor, is this realistically the end of your presidential aspirations?
CUOMO: You'll have to make the analysis.
QUESTION: ...Can you tell us what time today you've decided that you're weren't running?
CUOMO; [ignores] Yeah, JJ.
QUESTION: Is this one of the greatest disappointments of your career?
CUOMO: It would be enormously ungrateful for me to talk about disappointments. I have said over and over just being governor was more of a privilege than I ever expected to receive and probably more of a privilege than I ever thought I deserved. It would have been nice to run for president. I— but it's difficult for me to complain in any form at all.
QUESTION: Do you think that the White House choreographed the Republican effort here?
CUOMO: I really would prefer not to speculate. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference. What's important is that we need to break the logjam. I have to do whatever I can do to avoid damage to this state. It would simply be a, an ugly contradiction for me to cause damage to the people of the state I swore to serve, telling them all the while that I was on a greater mission to preserve them in the future by fighting my way to Washington. That has a certain romance to it. And to some people, it is a stronger logic than the logic I chose. I thought very hard about it, and it seemed to me difficult to escape the responsibility to deal with the budget now. Had they made a budget, had it worked out well, it would have been different. But they didn't. I'm not going to assume anybody had perverse motivation. I'll leave that to God and their conscience. All I know is the fact I need to deal with it. It doesn't seem appropriate to walk away now and say, Well, that's all right. Maybe this is a an indication of an inability to make hard decisions, and maybe they'll drift this way until another July, and maybe our paper will become junk, and maybe the school districts won't be able to borrow, and maybe there'll be a bankruptcy of New York State, but I need to pursue the presidency. It just didn't seem to come out right, and I told the media that over and over in an anticipatory way, when I said you need to deal with one impediment and that is the budget, and we weren't able to do it.
Fred?
QUESTION: ...time you made your final decision and if it was any one or two points that led you to reach the conclusion.
CUOMO: Doesn't work that way. It worked exactly the way I told you it would. You get all the facts. You decide when you have to decide. I had to decide as a practical matter to let Joe Grandmaison know, who was waiting in New Hampshire. I had to be polite to him. Couldn't wait until after five o'clock, when the filing date occurred, because that would have been—would have at least lacked graciousness for all those people in New Hampshire who were prepared to help you. It's difficult enough to say to them, I'm sorry, it didn't work out. They don't understand the budget. Many of them will have doubts for a long time as to what happened because they don't realize the complexities here. And so you set a deadline for yourself. You owe it to him. And for the media, you should let them know before the six o'clock news or whatever it is that they're interested in—not that I'm particularly eager to see the story all over the world. But, and then you gather all the facts, and you make your judgement.
QUESTION: ...there was a time? Did you finally decide that's it, I'm not going to go?
CUOMO: Again, Fred, as we said over and over, you need to get all the information you can. The last bits of information—those of you who have spent the last delightful couple of nights here observing from out of town—was what is the legislature doing? And I must tell you, there must have been four or five or six times when we went back to the Senate looking for some glimmering that they would be at all reasonable and even Saul Weprin, the indefatigably optimistic Saul Weprin, had to say at one point these guys just don't want to do anything for now. But you couldn't quit on it. You couldn't say that prematurely. And so I spoke to Ralph Marino as early as a couple of hours ago. After the last call to talk with Ralph Marino, I called Drew Zambelli [top aide to Cuomo] and said I'm gonna write a statement, there is no alternative here. And I wrote a statement.
QUESTION: ...campaign...
CUOMO: Whatever the party wants. The party, Ron Brown, said that the best thing for the party is for me to make clear now that if we settled the budget in a month or a week, it's too late, that this should be some kind of definitive deadline, and that's what we'll treat it as. He believes that's in the best interest of the party. I'll accept that. You don't like to suspect that you could even be cause for inconvenience to anybody. I don't like reading about people, unnamed people from the west, saying they're waiting for Cuomo. So that won't happen now. We'll make it clear to them that I won't be pursuing that option.
QUESTION: Governor, does it pain you that you may have missed a moment in history for yourself and the country?
CUOMO: I will work toward that level of egoism. I haven't arrived at it yet though.
QUESTION: Governor, would you accept a draft from the convention in mid-July?
CUOMO: Oh no, now see we went all through that in 1987. As a matter of fact somebody sent the book, Quotable Cuomo, with a baseball hat. And I turned—. From Buffalo.
BACK OF ROOM: Down in front.
CUOMO: Okay. [ducking]
[pointing] You, he means, will you get down please or I'll have to get down? Thank you.
The, I turned in the book, the Quotable Cuo— Buffalo, somebody in Buffalo did a book. And the page I turned to happened to be presidency 1987, and the quote, I think at the top of the page, or maybe the second one on the page was on exactly that subject. And what it said is you don't, you know you don't get drafted for the presidency. The process is primaries. The person who— As a matter of fact, my position hasn't changed since 1987. The same question came up. I said whoever wins the primaries in my opinion, ought to be the candidate. And as a matter of fact, what I said to the Democratic Party was, everybody ought to agree now not to play games at the convention. Whoever comes out first, whoever it is Jesse or, or Mike Dukakis, or Al Gore, that ought to be the candidate. That was my position. And I don't know what the rules are for other people, but that seems to make sense to me.
I think the important thing, Jay, I think the important thing, is what I've been saying from the beginning. I honestly believe that especially now, especially this year, the message is more important than anything.
And I think the second point to remember is that the message must be a responsible, complete, persuasive one. You can't and shouldn't win with a slogan.
I think the third point should be that you ought not to think of this election as a seesaw, that if President Bush goes down, the Democrats will automatically go off. I don't think that's true. I think that you're going to have to earn the presidency by coming forward with an economic plan and other things that are real. I don't believe we've done that yet.
To swap tax cuts with the other side, to say they want a capital gains tax, we want a middle class tax cut. Both of those ideas are excellent. Together they are not an economic plan that will make a difference. Did you hear what Mr. Greenspan said today? What is it going to be, three and a half percent interest? That is not a plan either.
You need Federal Reserve money, $25 billion into the banks, you need tax cuts, you need net investment tax credits, you need investments in infrastructure, you have to get some stimulus right away with an infrastructure plan and jobs, and then you have to deal with the deficit—the hard part; you have to cut entitlements the way we're cutting entitlements at the state level.
So I think the important thing is, you need a message. You need not to think of this as a seesaw. You need an intelligent, complete message, and whoever does that well should be the candidate. I don't think you have to be 41 years old, and I don't think you have to be this or that. You have to be persuasive on the message, and I think that's what should come out of the primaries, and that's what should come out of the convention. And when we get that, we'll win; we'll win, going away.
Stan and then Mark.
QUESTION: If the Senate were to come back on Monday or Sunday or whatever and you were to be able to strike some sort of an agreement either on a [inaud.] why is he too late then?
CUOMO: You know that I am constantly resisting arbitrariness. I really don't—and I get into trouble with some people because of that, because they call it shilly shallying or constant mirrors or Gail Collins got off a great line. She met a guy who says he hates living here because he has to listen to that kind of talk all the time. But normally I, I do what I can to underscore subtlety and to underscore nuances because that's what life is, right.
But there do come times too when you have to draw some lines for convenience sake. That's what Ron Brown is saying. He's not saying, there's no logic, Mario, to your hanging around. He's saying is look, the process is a crude and effective process as it is. We don't want any diversions. We want to get behind one candidate as early as possible, therefore cut it off. And so by saying— And his point was let's use New Hampshire as a deadline. You can't argue with that in logic or law, but I accept it. And I understand the intelligence of it from his political point of view. Get Cuomo and everybody else out of the way, and let's concentrate on the field we have. And I am no way offended by that suggestion, and it's one that I will accommodate.
Mark?
QUESTION: Other than the budget, can you explain a bit what other reasons, what other reasons there might have been [inaud.] not to go for it?
CUOMO: Mark, I really did put everything I wanted to say in this statement. I wrote it myself. It's nice and simple and neat.
QUESTION: ...Roger Ailes...
CUOMO: Roger is not in the race. I don't know the other guys. Roger— I would love— I ran against him three times. I told Roger the last time I spoke to him—you call him up and ask him this—. He said what are you going to do if you don't run? And I said I'm going to set up a political consultant firm, Roger, and my slogan is going to be I'm Good for What Ailes You, and I'm going to spell it Ailes, and I'm going to run against your candidates.
QUESTION: Governor, did you call Ron Brown?
CUOMO: No.
Marcia.
QUESTION: Governor, do you plan to continue to speak out against President Bush and Republican policies?
CUOMO: Well it's interesting. I, you know the New York Times had a policy that if I'm not a candidate I'm not allowed to speak on some of these issues. I couldn't get coverage for them. I don't know. I tried getting an answer on that one today. I spoke to one of the editors there, and said what is the policy? Does this mean that, you know, there's no point in my saying what you should do with Haiti because I'm only petty official? I think probably even if they don't want to print it, I'll continue to say what I think is appropriate, all within the context of being governor.
QUESTION: ...forceful critic of the Bush administration...
CUOMO: No, I don't want to be a forceful critic; I want to be a constructive force. And that's what my economic plan is. It's easy to criticize. That's why I say Marcia, a seesaw is not enough. You shouldn't win because he loses. You should win because you're right. You have to go to the American people and persuade them that you have a plan to put people to work, areal plan. Is it money in infrastructure, terrific. How do you pay for it? How do you put people to work?
General Motors is going to put 75,000 people out of work. 75,000 people. Almost as many families are going to have to go home and say, sorry, I can no longer earn bread for this house. I have to beg for unemployment, then I have to hope they don't run out, the people who are driving the Porsches, that they don't tell me there's not enough money for me on unemployment. Then I have to find a state where they're not going to cut off the welfare on me. Then if we're lucky, we won't starve. 75,000 of them. And you're answering by saying we're going to give you 300 bucks back. For what? For what? You're giving welfare people $400 for shelter and an apartment in New York City and food.
You need answers, specific answers, not sweet speeches. How are you going to put me to work? How are you going to educate my child in college and how are you going to pay for it? Not enough to say I'm going to spend money on this and spend money on it. Anybody can do a checkbook if you only have one side. You've got to spend it and you have to pay for it. That's very hard. The pay for it part is what this legislature cannot do. The pay for it part is what the Congress will not do. We'll give your capital gains tax cut. Terrific say the rich people. We'll give you a middle class tax cut. Wonderful, say the middle class people. Meanwhile, how do you pay for it? What we need is a dose of plain truth. So we don't need a lot of criticism. The criticism is easy. You blew it President Bush.
Here, you want the criticism. I'll give it to you in one line. And I didn't write it, a better man than I did by far, one of the most notable and important Americans in modern history—won a whole campaign by summing it up for the American people simply. He looked at Jimmy Carter and then he looked at the American people and said one question, Is your life better today than it was four years ago? And that was it. That's the question for President Bush. Is your life better today than it was four years ago? And the answer is so dramatically clearer that the contest is over if you're looking for criticism, but now you have to answer another question. Great. He lost. How do you win? What will you do to make my life better? Be specific and tell me how you pay for it. That's the contest.
That's what we're doing the state incidentally, Marcia. That's what every state does. That's the difference between states and the federal government. Pete Wilson does it. Lowell Weicker does it and gets his name on bumper stickers. You know, get rid of Saddam. They cross out Saddam. Get rid of Weicker. Why? Because he's telling the people of Connecticut the truth. Happens to every governor in this country, because they all have to balance budgets. Now it has to happen in Washington. It is judgment day in Washington. And so far, nobody, not the Democrats or the Republicans are willing to acknowledge it.
QUESTION: Governor, do you think that your deliberations have had any impact on the Democratic race up to this point?
CUOMO: I have no idea.
QUESTION: Can you assess the Democratic presidential field in light of the fact that in seriously considering a bit of your own, you must have been convinced you could have brought something to the campaign that was missing. How would you assess the field in light of that?
CUOMO: It's a good field. I think it's a good field. I think there are a number of really good candidates in it. I think it's extremely early. I think you've only had the best of my knowledge one public presentation nationally on the issues. You need to get more specific about the answers.
What do you do about the economy? This is a subject I'm familiar with because we wrote a book on competitiveness a couple of years ago with some of the best— Can I get a chance to do the press conference, and then then we'll finish it, and you can do what you want, okay?
We did a book in 1987 on competitiveness; we're doing another book now. It's very, very difficult to put together a whole economic plan that deals intelligently with both sides of the checkbook. So far, we haven't gotten one from the Republicans or from the Democrats. And until you get that, the campaign hasn't really started because you haven't gotten to the real answers. And that's only one. That's only the economy.
What do you do about so called foreign policy? Now there is no foreign policy that's totally divorced from economic policy. How do you feel about bringing Lee Iacocca to Japan? I think it's a truly dumb idea. You're gonna bring the auto executives to Japan to say to the Japanese auto executives, Hey, look, I only made $20 million dollars last year. You have to stop fooling around with this competition, because I want to make more. What are you bringing the auto executives for? You're the President of the United States. Sit down and say I'm here for the poor people. I'm here for the people who are out of work. I'm here for the big steel workers with a thick fingers who can't handle computers. I'm here for all the disoriented, all the disaffected, all the disadvantaged, not the people making 20 million. I want jobs for my people.
I brought you back to life here in Japan. We took care of you for a long time. Give me a break. Give me something to go home with. And if you don't, I'm not going to be able to start— stop the protectionism. You need to discuss those issues. What are you going to do about Haiti? Don't give me this stuff about you won a war in Iraq. I know you won a war in Iraq. What's the difference between Kuwait and Haiti? So those are the questions we haven't gotten to.
QUESTION: What did your family think the decision..."
QUESTION: If there have been any people, fundraisers or backers out there, waiting on your decision, would you urge them now to get involved in one of the other campaigns?
CUOMO: I—You know, I will do what I have done from the beginning and that is say to them, you should follow your own instincts with candidates. I think most of them want to have a horse if you will. Most people want to have a horse and that's what they'll be free to do.
QUESTION: ...most people, particularly Democrats, say it's not enough to talk about the economy, talk about Haiti...but it's irresponsible not to be a candidate and deliver that message.
CUOMO: That would be a compliment so overblown when applied to me that I don't expect to receive it and I would quickly return it to the person who offered it. I mean to have somebody suggest that you're so important that you had to be a candidate. I mean, that's that's just too much for me to accept. And I don't think there's any evidence of that. It's very flattering. It's nice to hear. You have six good candidates. Well, somebody says I have a poll with your name in it. So what? What does a poll mean? They had a poll that told you George Bush was unbeatable. What was that six months ago? And when it happened, I stood at this podium and told people in this room. So did Winston Churchill, so did Kohl. Kohl was at 90 and seven months later or so he was at 39.
Forget polls. They don't mean anything. They really don't. They're a snapshot in time, and time disappears instantly. As soon as you do a poll, it changes the poll. As soon as you said to people, it's President Bush 48, Cuomo 43—which is the poll they mentioned to me—that immediately changes the reality. If indeed it was ever anything like 48-43, as soon as some Republicans saw that they say, Oh my God, I didn't realize George was in such trouble. [claps] I'm back with the President. And others said, Gee, I thought Cuomo was ahead. He's behind. I don't want to be with a loser. I'm with the President. You cannot calculate all of that. So the polls don't mean anything. What you need is a message. There are plenty of messages out there to deliver. What you need is someone who can deliver the good message. They have at least six good potential...messages.
QUESTION: Do you think that if you had run a campaign that you would have been able to become the Democratic nominee and that you would have been able to win the race?
CUOMO: You'll never know that. I keep thinking about that, if I had stayed in baseball. I wonder if I would have made money?
Yeah.
QUESTION: ...vice president?
CUOMO: Jan, if you run for vice president, I'll consider it, okay
QUESTION: A month ago, Brad Johnson and others just. Governor.
COUMO: Excuse me, I'm talking to my friend [inaud.] I did that once. I did Lieutenant Governor. That's like a baby vice president, pardon me, Stan [Lundine]. Ask Stan if he would do it.
QUESTION: Governor, are you telling John Marino and Brad Johnson to cease all efforts to locate fundraisers in other states or to check primary dates or whatever? Is that all that over?
CUOMO: I just hoping. Who was it? John Marino and who?
QUESTION: John Marino, Brad Johnson, Mike [inaud].
CUOMO: I'm afraid they may cease talking to me, so I'm not worried about their, you know, maintaining energetic efforts on behalf of a phantom candidacy. That's just not real.
Joel. Dan, we'll get everybody you'll see. I'll outwait you, wait and see.
Dan?
QUESTION: Last month you told The Washington Post that I believe I can make the case against Bush better than anyone. By not running—
CUOMO: Who quoted me that?
QUESTION: Lally Weymouth.
CUOMO: Oh, Lally's right. Okay, Lally's right.
QUESTION: Given that statement, Governor, aren't you today by not running, relegating the Democratic Party to at best their second best candidate?
CUOMO: No. No. I said that— If I had to defend it— Do I have to defend it?
Okay, if I had to defend it, I would say to you I said it as a non candidate. Non candidates speak more freely, more easily and often more effectively because of the lack of constraints than candidates.
QUESTION: Do you think there's anybody that can make the case against Bush better than you?
CUOMO: Almost anybody. You could do it, Joel. Anybody.
QUESTION: Couldn't you solve the economic malaise described in this state as well as the rest of this country better from the national [inaud.] of the presidency, than you could as the governor of your state?
CUOMO: Yes. Correct. Yes. Definitely.
Well, because there's a budget to deal with, and I swore and obligation to deal with it.
Yeah, if I were not governor, or even if our budget problem was just a reflection of everyone else's budget problem, which we had earlier this year. We have a different situation now because the Republicans did this to us in 1990. They drove us down to a level where if they drive us any lower, we're in danger of becoming junk. If you become junk, then it's not just a question of having had your temporary embarrassment from a reduced rating that no sane layperson understands anyway. It actually threatens the ability of the school districts to borrow. Now if you can imagine a business that cannot open its doors unless the bank shows up in the morning and says, Hey, here's a check for the foodstuffs you need to sell today. That's what the school districts are. If they cannot borrow, there is chaos. Then you all rush back to Albany and say, shall we do a mini Mac? Shall we go to the Japanese for borrowings, and all over the country there's a headline that says New York nightmare.
This is, the implications here. There are people in this room who understand it. There are staff people who understand it. When I say it, they nod their heads, they say that's correct. But there's not a whole lot of lay people. Unfortunately for me, I understand it better than almost anybody. And that's the reality of it. And it's not something that would go away. It's not something I could toss off cavalierly in Indiana, and say, well, that's really George Bush's nightmare. That wouldn't be fair. It would be a question of my having failed to get the legislature to agree. But it was a Republican legislature. So what? I'm the governor; you're supposed to even be able to deal with Republicans. It's your obligation. And you don't deal with it by running away from it and seeking a still higher perch. You fail at that level, okay, you fail.
Now I wish I could see it another way. This is not a comfortable analysis for me to be honest with you. I mean I— and I can make the case pretty well on almost anything. And I tried to make myself come out better on this. I just didn't succeed.
I can't— you're a disembodied voice.
QUESTION: ...with News Channel 13. Will you now contact the people who you have been lining up in the event of a candidacy—?
CUOMO: I haven't contacted anybody to begin with.
They're free. Write it down. Free.
QUESTION: All the people who might have been waiting for you...?
CUOMO: Free. All the people who might have been waiting for me are free.
QUESTION: ...in the hall say he's not running now, but you know the convention is going to be in New York State. You just someone who's not running can speak more freely than someone who is running. Do you sort of stay as a little ghost in the background if here's no clear consensus in the six out there. Everybody clamors, where's Mario now?
CUOMO: Won't happen. Shouldn't happen. Last time they didn't even let me speak at the convention. This time they suggested I not be invited. Tip O'Neill, Tip O'Neill said if he's not a candidate, he ought not to be invited, and Tip O'Neill is a friend. I shudder to think what my enemies are saying.
I can't see you—
QUESTION: You said that theoretically at a later date if the budget is solved you might be able [inaud.]
CUOMO: That's right. I eliminated that theoretical possibility.
QUESTION: ...you're out of it completely?
CUOMO: It could happen that in 10 days, finally, the Senate Republicans come to their senses.
Did the Assembly pass the DRP today? Assembly pass the DRP?
It's possible that within 10 days, they'll patch the current budget. I hope so because if not, we're going to get devastated by the rates. But that's still gonna leave us with the next budget. And what you have seen so far. Seven weeks what you've seen is a total inability to deal with hard problems. We saw it last spring. It's going to be harder this time. That's why one of the things I'm going to do on Monday is ask them to vote on the Timely Budget Bill. If you're one day late, you don't get paid. No check for the governor, the lieutenant governor, the controller, no check for any legislator. I want them to vote on it. Monday. And if they have the guts to stand up and say to the people of this state, don't worry about it. You won't need any bill like this. We're going to act very swiftly. Then they will set a new record for hypocrisy and they will look ridiculous. I want to see them stand up and say don't worry about it. We'll do it on time this time. What are you talking about? We had to beg you just to get you to the room. So, uh the. Well that's it, go ahead.
QUESTION: Governor, what about your family? Is Andrew...?
CUOMO: You know my mother has a wonderful expression. between now and then [Italian] Which means, very bad Italian, between now and then a pope will be born. It means that everything happens. You get 96 is an eon away; at least one eon, possibly an eon and a quarter.
QUESTION: Governor is your family totally in agreement with your decision. Will we see Andrew come out again and maybe say [inaud.] if the climate gets better here the state?
CUOMO: He never said it the first time. I'm not gonna talk about my family's opinions because they speak for themselves. They barely let me speak if you want to hear the truth.
QUESTION: Governor do you want to get involved in the presidential campaign in any capacity, either picking a candidate or...?
CUOMO: Any capacity, any capacity I'll be useful.
QUESTION: Did you read anything in particular that you'd like to tell us about in the last 24 hours other than budget documents to help you make this decision?
CUOMO: I'm sorry, John. Did I did I read anything?
QUESTION: ...read anything last night? Consulted any...Lincoln?
CUOMO: A little book by Silesians. But I do this all the time, John, you know, I'm always leafing. We've got books on quotes. Favorite books. I got Moynihan, Teilhard [phon.], not that I put them in the same category. You know, and I look through books, so I do that all the time, especially if I'm trying to think things through. I've got to Grolier's encyclopedia, which I recommend to all of you. If you're tired of the Britannica, if you don't like British spelling, if you don't like small print, if you don't like exotic birds, and you want to get closer to the heart of the matter, get the Grolier's encyclopedia. They say it's everywhere from eight years old, I think, to college. It is a terrific encyclopedia. And I looked through that. I look through Grolier's. I cannot say it gave me any inspiration. I looked through quotable quotes or whatever, the Cuomo book, and found the one on— So I looked through the things but I don't know what effect they had?
QUESTION: Governor, was this decision more difficult than your decision four years ago not to run and if so why?
CUOMO: Four years ago, I never did anything like this. Four years ago, as I recall, it was Marc Humbert [AP] and a bunch of guys on the G1. He quit, Marc? Where's Marc? Oh, he's filed a story, I'm going to say something hot now. We were on a plane, the G1, talking; I don't know if Joel was there. But somebody said, You really ought to do something on the process. I said, Well, I'm really not interested. Well, shouldn't you talk to somebody? I said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give it thought for a couple of weeks, and then I'll give you a story. And within the two weeks, I decided that I should talk to some experts.
So I talked to two people, two people I had never spoken with before, certainly not at any length. Kirk O'Donnell, because they told me he was terrific and I knew him by reputation, and Bob Shrum, about whom I had heard wonderful things and whose material I had read for a long time. And I called them both out of the blue, and I said would you talk to a neophyte about how the politics works? Not only did they talk to me, they came up to Albany, and I think they each spoke to me for at least five hours, I think Shrum was closer to seven. And bottom lines were, even if I were otherwise suited for this candidacy, what would I have to do in Iowa, etcetera? They said well you have to be at least 50 days in Iowa. I came and I told the press that's it, can't be done. So that was all there was to it. I didn't make any thorough consideration.
Here starting on October 11 I did it differently for whatever reason. Joel Benenson [phon.] and I talked just a little bit about what the reason was. Put that aside, starting on October 11, I went through it, the way you're going through it if you were exploring any complicated, difficult subject. What are the requirements? What price do you have to pay? What does it mean to your family? What capacity do you need? What do you have to know? What do you have to be able to do? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? I did all of that, and disposed of that very, very easily. Until I got to one question, and that is what does it mean to the state?
Especially in the budget context. Everything but the budget is relatively easy to handle. I have the State of the State practically written. Mary Ann Crotty and her people are working on it. She's given me her third draft. The third draft is very, very strong. We could, we could do it in two days. So the State of the State is just about set. The budget, although we started very late, [inaud.] is in very good shape because all the work we've done with a 15-month plan really helps us with the 12 month plan. So all of that work is done. What else do you do you? Do deal with the legislature? There's going to be virtually no legislative session this year; they're so eager to go out and hide, you know, in this year of horrors for elected officials, that, what they'll do is a few good bills and then escape. So there is nothing really standing in the way although then the budget problem, and that's what I said to you, and that's what I said to people. And they give you that blank look. Well, there's a federal government and a state government; you've got a rinky-dinky budget problem. What, what's the problem? Well it's a very severe problem.
But all of that I did this time, Dan. None of it. None of it in 1987.
QUESTION: Did you consult with members of your [inaud.] If so how did they advise you?
CUOMO: We don't do it that way. We do a lot of it by osmosis. We do a lot of it by shrugs.
QUESTION: ...still alive or do you feel like we just got to do it immediately.
CUOMO: ...plan is where it has been from the beginning. A wonderful, wonderful idea. I'm going to lose weight. There's a terrific idea. Maybe 30 pounds. Wonderful. That's in the category of I'm going to lose 30 pounds. They both said, Let's lose 30 pounds. I said terrific. Meanwhile, you're eating sundaes and eating gyros. You're not gonna lose 30 pounds. And that's where the 15 month plan is.
QUESTION: ...signal that were willing to negotiate?
CUOMO: We don't need any more signals. You know, when a man sticks a dagger in your shoulder. You don't need to wait for another signal before you cover your heart.
QUESTION: You say that— You've always said that the budget was the chief obstacle, and today you're saying it was pretty much the only obstacle.
CUOMO: I think I said that. I Excuse me. I think I said that. Pretty much the only, the only substantial .... I always left a little room because you should.
QUESTION: I'm just curious whether there were any personal reservations, hesitations, fears that you can tell us about to give us a little insight...?
CUOMO: No, only the possibility of the ego trip that you speculated about. If you exclude that I was on some kind of ego trip, which you suggested as a possibility, then we've covered them all.
QUESTION: ...Senator Marino?
CUOMO: John.
QUESTION: ...why wait 'tll 90 minutes before the deadline to file in New Hampshire?
CUOMO: Because the budget is always at loggerheads for several weeks. The budget always starts that way. John, you have to remember this is not Washington. The process is altogether different than it is in Washington and has been in Washington for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, I suspect it was that way— Well it's hard to say how it was here because you had a legislature that was basically controlled by the governor for 16 years.
But here the process is one of the governor, a different party from one house at least of the legislature for the last lot of years, delivering a budget, and then engaging immediately and almost constantly in a series of wrestling negotiations. That's what happens. Especially in the hard times of the last few years, it has been a very difficult, bruising set of negotiations. We have been late seven years in a row. The first two years of my administration we were on time, but the last seven the legislature has gotten back to us late. There was nothing unusual about the early period of struggle. Also, there were the regular reassurances by the legislature that this time they intended to do it on time.
I see you're getting uneasy. I'm going to end this now. Thank you very much.
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