Bill Clinton: “The people that I'm concerned about are the people who were prepared to vote for responsible deficit reduction all…”

“The people that I'm concerned about are the people who were prepared to vote for responsible deficit reduction all along, the moderate to conservative Democrats who are willing to vote for tax increases as long as they know they're going to go to reduce the deficit. Bill Bradley called for the deficit reduction trust fund also, I noted yesterday. And a whole range of House Members from Charles Schumer to Charles Stenholm did. And I think it will help to--more importantly, I think that in the public mind out there in the country, people will see that it's a double guarantee that the money will go where we say it will go. So I still think it's a very good thing to do. I didn't expect it to move any of the votes of people who say that they won't vote for a tax increase no matter what. But I must say, the most encouraging thing on that is the interview that David Stockman, who was President Reagan's Budget Director, did in a magazine called the New Politics Quarterly this month where he basically owns up to the fact that the biggest problem with the deficit is that they cut 6 percent of the national income out of the tax base in 1981 in a bidding war. That was twice the size of the tax cut that President Reagan originally intended to offer to stimulate the economy. And he says the impact of that has never been overcome. So all we're going to try to do is redress that with some tough spending cuts. And I think the public mood will be far more supportive.”