THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (Camp David, Maryland) ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 18, 2000 PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART Thurmont Elementary School Thurmont, Maryland 12:20 P.M. EDT MR. LOCKHART: Good afternoon, everyone. Sorry I'm a little bit late. Let me bring you up to date on what's happened since Mr. Crowley briefed you late last night. The talks continued at a variety of levels very late into the evening last night. The President, for his part, had two separate sessions with Prime Minister Barak; met with the team several times. Mr. Berger and Secretary of State Albright met with Chairman Arafat. The President's night, or, more accurately morning, ended at about 5:00 a.m. This morning, the President began with a meeting with his team at about 10:00 a.m. And at about 10:30 a.m. or so, began a bilateral meeting with Chairman Arafat. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q & A's  on Israel/Palistine summit OMITTED --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q Can I ask you a question? Is the White House concerned that the GOP appears to be passing tax cuts that are very popular with voters in these -- MR. LOCKHART: Listen, it's very clear that the Republicans in Congress have decided to put aside their responsibilities and to play politics. They've made very clear that they want to get bills done, timed to their convention, so they'll have something to talk about at their convention. The Democrats, on the other hand, I think have a stronger candidate, so we don't need to do that. I understand their problem. But as far as their bills, you have to look at them. And I think the Secretary of Treasury put out a very important analysis yesterday. What the American public needs to know -- and it's a very simple thing -- is the Republicans are doing two things here. One is, they're abandoning the fiscal discipline that brought us this prosperity; and, two, they are putting together a series of tax bills that the top 1 percent of Americans get 84 times the tax cut as an average middle-class American citizen. So if they think that that's politically persuasive, they'll continue to push that; we'll continue to push our program of targeted tax cuts and fiscal discipline, and the voters will decide. Q -- you, in particular, when you look at the new CBO numbers to up the ante a little bit, as far as -- MR. LOCKHART: I think the President has put forward a very robust, but targeted, package of tax cuts. We've talked about a very important prescription drug benefit that the Republicans have walked away from, to date. And I think when it comes to -- if you want to compare CBO to OMB numbers, the past should give you some sense of who gets it right and whose projections are closer to reality. Q Joe, if he pulled an all-nighter last night, is the President ready for an all-nighter tonight? MR. LOCKHART: Sure. Q Is there any sense of -- and the intensity of the negotiations might be picking up as we get closer to President Clinton's scheduled departure tomorrow? Has that, indeed, been the case? And what do you expect -- MR. LOCKHART: Yes, and more. Thanks. END 12:40 P.M. EDT