Children ‘Grill’ President, Even Evoke Tears : White House: Some questions were tender, others tough in TV forum.

Forty children cross-examined President Clinton on live television Saturday, tossing him poignant and blunt questions on everything from homelessness and health care to the marital status of his 12-year-old daughter, Chelsea.

In a two-hour ABC-TV broadcast from the East Room of the White House, Clinton offered the children, ages 8 to 14, a simplified outline of his plans. Under the youngsters’ unblinking questioning, he also disclosed that he got poor grades on conduct for talking too much in school, that he and Chelsea each have a bad habit of staying up too late, and that his wife, Hillary, is too busy these days to often cook for him.

A jeans-clad Chelsea, in a cameo appearance with Socks the First Cat, confided that Secret Service agents shadow her at school all day, but she said it didn’t bother her because “they stay out of the way.” When one youngster in the audience asked if Chelsea was single, she blushed and said she was. And her father added, “She better be.”

The show came in the midst of a White House marketing blitz for Clinton’s three-day-old economic program, and it marked the fifth time in seven days the President has appeared on a live national television broadcast.

Looking relaxed though he was struggling with a cold, Clinton appeared in fashionably baggy green trousers and a blue blazer. The show opened with ABC anchorman Peter Jennings strolling into the Oval Office to find Clinton, his blazer draped over the back of his high-backed chair, working on his plan for a national service program.

Clinton was apparently pleased with the event, since he agreed to extend the show from the planned 90 minutes to two hours.

The children, chosen by the TV network, came from the District of Columbia and 11 states. Many brought heart-rending stories.

A girl named Shannon, from South-Central Los Angeles, narrated her experience in the Los Angeles riots. She asked Clinton how he intends to help minorities get low-interest loans to rebuild homes and buildings.

Clinton ticked off his plans, familiar from his presidential campaign, to open community banks, and to offer investment incentives for stricken urban areas, and to promote small-business investment. He pointed out that his economic plan called for the creation of 700,000 summer jobs that would presumably help in urban areas with high youth unemployment.

Clinton’s voice grew husky and he wiped away a tear as 13-year-old Joey DePaolo of Brooklyn, N.Y., told how he contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. Clinton said his economic plan would increase funding for AIDS research and general medical research as well. “Meanwhile, you keep hanging in there,” he said.

Elizabeth Bailey, from the Northern California town of Hayfork, said her father’s lumber business had been forced to close because of federal moves to protect the forest habitat of the spotted owl.

Clinton told her he wanted to find a compromise that would protect the owl in some timberlands, while keeping other acreage open to logging.

A teen-ager named Shawna told how her mother had lost her job at the Rockwell International Corp. and how her father might lose his. Both parents had been treated for cancer, she said, and her mother was having a hard time finding insurance coverage because of her illness.

Clinton said he wants to create a health care system built around groups of the insured large enough that the illnesses of any individual would not threaten the group’s solvency. And he said plans to begin a “major effort” this week to find a way to convert defense industries to peacetime use.

“We’re going to see what we can do to start building up jobs in the aerospace industry,” he said.

Another young questioner, who called the show’s 800 number, wanted to know if Clinton didn’t feel uneasy having his wife running the health care reform task force. Because Hillary is so close to him, Clinton could be blamed if the effort failed, the questioner suggested.

“If it doesn’t work, I’m going to be blamed anyway,” Clinton responded.

Clinton appeared uncomfortable when a boy named Basil asked a question that brought up Clinton’s well-known taste for fast food.

The boy, saying he was an official of Kids Against Junk Food, wanted Clinton to limit advertising by fast-food companies. Clinton turned to ABC anchorman Jennings and said, apparently in jest: “I’m going to ask Mr. Jennings not to take any more advertising from junk-food manufacturers.”

But then he felt compelled to put in a good word for the fast-food companies he has frequently patronized. “In the last few years a lot of them have made a real effort to reduce” the junk food content of their menus, the President said.

Clinton sounded much better than he had earlier Saturday during a six-minute national radio address in which he coughed repeatedly and struggled with a raspy voice. Spokeswoman Lorraine Voles said the President has a cold and was drinking hot tea with lemon to soothe his throat.

During his address, Clinton urged the country to fall behind his economic plan for the good of its children. To those who would criticize his program, he said: “Don’t waste the people’s time any more. I won’t raise people’s taxes without cutting spending. Tell us exactly where you want to cut and I’ll gladly listen.”

In related remarks, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Saturday he will try to get the economic plan approved by his committee “exactly as it is.”

Appearing on CNN’s “Evans & Novak” show, Moynihan acknowledged that “there will be some members who will want to make some changes.” But he added, “I’ll take it exactly as it is because we want to get it done quickly.”

He said he personally favored some changes, such as cutting the budget of the intelligence community by $10 billion. However, “we don’t have time” for any changes, he said. “We’ve got to send a message to Wall Street and to the world.”

While Moynihan was defending the plan, it came under attack from the heads of two Washington trade associations. Charles DiBona, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said Clinton’s proposed tax increase on energy consumption “hits low-income people (and) reduces the competitiveness of American manufacturers.”

DiBona predicted the energy tax “is going to cost American jobs”--perhaps as many as 600,000--because many industries will move to Mexico or Canada to reduce their fuel costs.

Joining DiBona on CNN’s “Newsmaker Saturday” show, Jerry Jasinowski of the National Assn. of Manufacturers complained that the plan did not have “enough spending cuts for a really radical restructuring of government.” The President’s package involves a $3 increase in taxes affecting businesses for every $1 reduction in spending, he said.

Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson contributed to this story.