Bill Clinton: “I hope--as you see, we're running a little behind today, so I hope you'll forgive us if we don't do a lot of questions…”

“I hope--as you see, we're running a little behind today, so I hope you'll forgive us if we don't do a lot of questions; we have a lot of work to do. But let me just say from my point of view, I am pleased that our representatives met yesterday. They did make some progress. Obviously, a lot of the biggest issues remain. But the process seems to be working, and I'm encouraged. And I want to continue to do it until we reach agreement on a balanced budget. That's what I think clearly we all want. I would say here that 2 days before Christmas I hope some way can be found to get the checks for the 3\1/2\ million veterans and the aid to the 8 million children who need it just to exist. And there are almost half a million Federal workers who have been working who won't get their paychecks today that they would otherwise get. So I think those problems need to be addressed. But on the other issue, I at least believe that we made some good progress yesterday, and I'm looking forward to the report today and continuing this process until we succeed, until we get this job done.”