Bill Clinton: “Well, I think this particular one has a fairly happy answer, but let me give you the general argument. The thing that…”

“Well, I think this particular one has a fairly happy answer, but let me give you the general argument. The thing that has gotten our budget in trouble are ongoing trends. Particular disasters that do, frankly, increase spending on a one-year basis have not contributed in any significant way at all to the Government's deficit problem. And I think that there is a general feeling in the country, and certainly in Washington among people of both parties, that when something like this happens you have to put the people first. Now, in this particular case, while I will ask for $2.5 billion in budget authority, and it may go up based on the real losses, it's happening in this budget year where our deficit is more than $20 billion less than we thought it was going to be in January. Because there's been a serious debate in the Congress and an effort that is progressing to bring the deficit down dramatically, long-term interest rates have dropped. And as they have dropped, the cost of carrying the debt has gone down. And some other expenses we thought we would have, have not materialized. We've had about one million new jobs in the economy, for example, since January. So our deficit this year is projected to be over $20 billion less than we thought it was going to be, so that while this will cut into that, at least we'll still wind up way short of where it was projected in January. Mr. Mickelson. Every county in the State of Iowa is on your list now, eligible for disaster relief.”