Bill Clinton: “First of all, what you've said is not accurate. All major Western countries have higher tax rates than we do. You know…”

“First of all, what you've said is not accurate. All major Western countries have higher tax rates than we do. You know, it does not serve the public debate to tell people that Germany has had a higher growth rate than America because they have lower taxes. It's simply not true. It is absolutely untrue. National tax rates in Japan are much higher than they are here. And aggregate corporate rates in Japan at all levels of government will be higher than they are here even if my plan passes. And if you look at the percentage of income going to taxes in America, with the exception of some very high taxed urban areas, where the cost of living is very high, we compare very favorably, if this plan passes in toto, with the tax rates in all the countries with which we are competing. The problem with it is that we're not spending money on the right things. We're spending too much on interest on the debt. We're spending too much on health care. We're spending too little on things that create jobs and growth and opportunity. Nevertheless, I did not raise taxes happily here. I was Governor of a State that was always, always, every year I was Governor, was in the bottom five States in America in the percentage of people's income going to taxes. Always. And after I had been Governor 10 years, the same percentage of income was going to taxes that was going 10 years before. I never raised taxes to balance the books. The only times we ever raised taxes in Arkansas was for schools and roads and had the support of big majorities of the American people. I don't like this. I made it very clear why I decided to ask for a modest contribution from middle class families with incomes over $30,000, but under $140,000; no income tax increases until families who were basically families, if you had two earners above $180,000. And the reason is that after the election, the Government--the previous Government, not mine--estimated the deficit over the next 5 years to be about $150 billion bigger than they said it was before the election. So I had to face a decision. Was I going to try to do more on deficit reduction and try to deal with this and get these interest rates down, based on changed circumstances, minimizing the tax burden all I could and still asking the top--really over two-thirds of this burden will come from the top one percent of taxpayers, who got two-thirds of the benefits the last 12 years. Or was I going instead to do what was more politically popular and consistent with what I honestly believed in the campaign but not what I thought was best for Americans. And I decided the best thing to do would be to try to take account of the fact that the deficit was $150 billion bigger than we thought and to try to respond to it. The American people will have to decide whether they think that's right or wrong. Now, I have done my best to make the tax system fairer. I have done something for working families under $30,000 a year. They've all been held harmless. We've done something significant for the working poor. And I have 4 more years to try to deal with further inequalities in the tax system, which I plan to do. But I think this deficit has to be attacked first, and I think I did the right thing. Space Station and Super Collider”