Clinton Hits Labor on NAFTA Tactics : Policy: President blames ‘raw muscle’ of unions for his difficulties in getting free trade pact votes. He warns that race relations continue to deteriorate in cities.

In an unusually sharp critique of one of his party’s most influential constituencies, President Clinton on Sunday blamed the “roughshod, muscle-bound tactics” of organized labor for the difficulty he faces in winning ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Acknowledging that he is about 30 votes short of having enough support in the House of Representatives to ratify the trade pact, Clinton said: “At least for the undecided Democrats, our big problem is the raw muscle, the sort of naked pressure” applied by labor.

Clinton’s NAFTA assessment came during a televised interview in which he defended his health care reform initiative and foreign policy record, warned that race relations continue to deteriorate in America’s cities and held himself responsible for not doing enough to explain his priorities and accomplishments to the nation.

“I was absolutely certain a year ago that I could pursue this aggressive agenda of change and that every step along the way I’d be able to tell the American people what I was doing and convince them that we were going right,” Clinton said in a one-hour interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“We’re pursuing it, we’re making in a way a little more progress than I thought we would, but there’s a big gap between what we’ve done and what I’ve been able to tell the people about,” the President said. “I’ve got to do a better job.”

Clinton predicted that Congress would “absolutely” adopt a health care reform package by next year.

Just days after the White House conceded that 30% of Americans would pay more for health care under his plan than they currently do, Clinton sought to blunt the impact of the prediction. He warned that everyone would be paying more if the system is not reformed because of the relentless upward spiral of health costs.

“If you look at the experience of the last 12 years . . . and then you think about what it will be like five years from now, 100% of the American people will pay more five years from now than the rate of inflation if we don’t do something,” he said.

The President sought to deflect criticism of his handling of foreign and defense policy, saying that “these are the problems that nobody’s figured out how to resolve.” He said his Administration has “inherited . . . very difficult problems in Bosnia, Somalia and Haiti.”

Clinton’s pointed criticism of organized labor represents a new tack in the President’s uphill campaign on behalf of NAFTA, which would remove trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada over the next 15 years.

In focusing on the unions, whose political strength in presidential races has been declining along with their membership, Clinton is turning on a constituency that was among the most important in his successful political alliance a year ago.

But with only 10 days left until the House votes on legislation that would implement NAFTA, supporters are “30 votes short of having explicit, express commitments” from the 218 members needed to win, Clinton conceded.

With Republicans generally favoring the pact but lacking sufficient numbers to put it over the top, the White House is turning its attention to members of the President’s own party, who have been more reluctant to support the deal.

Clinton attributed NAFTA’s problems primarily to “the vociferous, organized opposition of most of the unions telling these (House) members in private they’ll never give them any money again, they’ll get them opponents in the primary, you know, the real roughshod muscle-bound tactics.”

The President’s criticism of the labor unions, which have mounted an aggressive campaign to defeat NAFTA, was so pointed that he later remarked that counselor David Gergen had expressed fears off-camera that Clinton was courting negative news headlines.

“Those guys are my friends,” Clinton said, apparently trying to patch things up with the unions even before the interview program ended. “I just don’t agree with them on NAFTA.”

Thomas Donahue, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, called Clinton’s remarks Sunday a “cheap shot” and part of a “desperate effort to capture votes and win passage” of NAFTA.

The President also criticized the business community for failing to rally employees and “rank-and-file people” to express their support of NAFTA.

Supporters argue that by increasing commerce among the three nations, the agreement would promote jobs in the United States as manufacturers and service firms increase their business dealings with Mexico. Critics, including such major unions as the auto workers, Teamsters, machinists and garment workers, fear that U.S. laborers will suffer through loss of jobs or lower wages as they are forced to compete with Mexican workers.

Clinton held out the possibility, under questioning, that he would pull the United States out of the agreement if it was creating a net loss of U.S. jobs, dragging down wages or creating undue hardship in one sector of the economy.

“If I thought the treaty were bad for the American economy, of course I would do that,” he said. “We can get out in six months if it’s bad for us, and we can stop anything horrible and unforeseen.”

He said that approval of NAFTA would put “enormous pressure” on competitors in Asia and Europe to conclude global trade talks that proponents say offer the greatest opportunity to stimulating the world economy. Similarly, he said, his hand will be weakened if the House rejects NAFTA in a vote set for Nov. 17, just before his meeting with Asian leaders in Seattle.

Clinton has said repeatedly that rejection of the trade agreement would send a signal around the world that the United States is no longer interested in opening its borders to increased commerce. That, in turn, would invite Japan to strike up a partnership with Mexico that would otherwise be available to the United States, he contends.

Clinton, who last week challenged NAFTA opponent Ross Perot to debate Vice President Al Gore in a prime-time confrontation scheduled for Tuesday, has attempted to provide high-level political cover for House members who vote for NAFTA.

Asked whether he is concerned that his decision to send Gore into a debate with Perot would “re-create a monster” by calling attention to the Texas billionaire and his anti-NAFTA crusade, Clinton said: “Ross Perot’s got enough money to elevate himself. He can buy his way on national television and buy his own exposure and have very little accountability.”

In a wide-ranging discussion of the problems afflicting urban America, broadcast from the Oval Office, Clinton said that the racial climate has grown “much, much worse” for all but middle-class and affluent minorities.

Echoing a growing chorus of African-American leaders, he linked urban violence with the dramatic growth of fatherless families. But he also chided those who have abandoned inner cities and their residents to poverty, and called on prosperous Americans to demonstrate a greater sense of responsibility and community toward those who are less fortunate.

“If we want to say tough things about the breakdown of the family and the responsibility of people who live in these communities, we also have to say tough things to the rest of America about how you can’t just ignore these people until you have to read about how . . . children (are) having children and nobody’s married and . . . these kids are dying,” Clinton said. “This country is falling apart because we have allowed a whole group of us to drift away. It’s not an underclass any more, it’s an outer class.”

Clinton cautioned that efforts to reduce violent crime and improve the lives of the poor must go beyond legislation.

“I think first that we ought to pass our crime bill here and put another 100,000 police on the street and do it right (through) community policing,” Clinton said. “But we also have to get work back into the lives of people. You know, you can’t have generation after generation not knowing work and expect there to be structure and order in people’s lives.”

Answering personal questions almost a year after taking office, Clinton confirmed that he would sign a living will laying out the terms of his care in the event that he should become terminally ill or incapacitated. And he discussed his perennial efforts to lose weight, saying that a jogging regime has helped to take “two or three inches” off his waist.

“It’s like everything else. I think you just have to sort of show up every day and try to make a little progress,” he said of his six-times-a-week running. “I think that’s what you do in life.”