Exchange With Reporters During a Luncheon With Business Leaders

White House Travel Office

Q. [Inaudible]—members of your staff in the Travel Office scandal? Is part of this inquiry going to consider—going to be a chance of shakeups because of the event?

The President. Well, I would like it on the record that one of the things they did was to figure out how to save—how to do the same work with less than half as many people and save you 25 percent on your first flight. I keep hoping I'll read that somewhere in these accounts. I think that ought to be accounted for. I was—the press complained to me repeatedly about being gouged by the White House Travel Office. I kept hearing it everywhere. So we put it out on a competitive bid and saved you 25 percent.

Now, if it wasn't handled right, we'll get to the bottom of it, and we'll straighten that out, and it will be handled right. That's what Mr. McLarty worked on yesterday. And we will do what is appropriate, follow the "do-right rule," and go forward. I-don't have anything else to say about it.

Ross Perot

Q. Mr. President, as you meet with these CEO's, your—I put this in quotes—one of your "favorite business guys," Mr. Perot, has been sniping at you again. He told David Frost that you don't have the background or the experience for the most difficult job in the world. How do you deal with this kind of talk from him?

The President. You deal with it. [Laughter]

Q. He said you were doing things the Arkansas way.

The President. Well, we know he doesn't like my State. But he spent several million dollars to bad-mouth it last—and it doesn't have much to do with America. We're going to just keep working.