Bill Clinton: “So we're trying to get three things done. Number one, we want to highlight what we've been doing the last 6\1/2\ years…”

“So we're trying to get three things done. Number one, we want to highlight what we've been doing the last 6\1/2\ years and what the positive impacts are. Number two, we want to promote the new markets initiative because it's nationwide, and it's a heavier emphasis on venture capital and on direct investment, equity investment. And number three, we want to increase the awareness of the opportunities there in these areas because I think we have to build a different economic infrastructure in these areas. If we do that, the next time there is a recession, they won't be totally wiped out; they'll go down like the rest of the country, and then when we get out of the recession the next time, they'll come up like the rest of the country. But if they have no resources, they get hurt terribly in the recessions, because they have a lot of marginal employees, and then when we come out, they don't come out. Basically, I think people have not thought through here that the economic infrastructure in most of these places literally disappeared somewhere over the last 30 years and hasn't been replaced for anything. Now, it turns out to be in the self-interest of the investor in the corporate community to replace it. And these people are out there dying to work. Yes, there are all kinds of obstacles, special obstacles in every one of these places: transportation in Appalachia, the level of education, the skills, you've got to do more on-the-job training. There are all kinds of problems. But the opportunity there is significant, and if we have sufficient tax incentives and if the Government does our part in spending for education and training, too, we will, I think, at least make the relative risk of investment equal to what it would be in most other places. Budget Agenda Mr. Brownstein. Let me not jump around, but I would like to try to touch on a couple of other things and then come back to one other thing on the investment side. You mentioned before, you were a little more optimistic than conventional wisdom about the prospect, and there does seem to be a little change in the wind as the surplus numbers have gotten better. Let me ask you first, do you think a broad-based deal would have to include a broad-based tax reduction beyond what you've proposed, and are there some that are more acceptable to you than others?”