Bill Clinton: “As a matter of principle, I think it's wrong for a President to do that. But look at our record. I told the American…”

“As a matter of principle, I think it's wrong for a President to do that. But look at our record. I told the American people exactly what I would do. I said the first time, when I go in I'm going to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay more, not because I'm for class warfare but because they can afford to. We'll cut spending, raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and bring the deficit down. We did that. Now, what else did we do? We cut taxes on 15 million families with incomes of $25,000 a year or less an average of $1,000 a year. We made 90 percent of the small businesses eligible for a tax cut. We established a capital gains tax for investment, long-term and new businesses. We just--I just signed a bill passed by this Congress which I tried to pass last time which provides a tax cut for self-employed people for the cost of their health insurance. I have proposed a middle class tax cut in connection with continued deficit reduction and tied to education. That is my record. I'm not out there raising taxes. I'm trying to lower the deficit and lower taxes. That is my record. That is my program for this Congress. That is the future. But on principle, I think a President runs the risk of breeding cynicism to sign that kind of pledge when you have no idea what will come forward. Let me give you an example. I strongly believe that the Congress made a terrible mistake. The only tax break they've given anybody new this time is to reject my proposal to ask billionaires who gave up their American citizenship to get out of American taxes on money they made as Americans to pay their fair share. And for reasons I do not understand, the Republican Congress, in conference, in secret, after being lobbied by a former Republican Congressman and a former Republican Senator, let the billionaires off scot-free. So if we sign that, am I raising taxes? I would sign that in a heartbeat. People ought to pay what they owe--they shouldn't be able to give up their citizenship--pay what they owe. Mr. Blitzer. But you would have then signed that into law after they included it in the different package, the billionaires loophole.”