Bill Clinton: “No. It's because--let me just say this. The argument of the Republicans in last November's election was, ``The middle…”

“No. It's because--let me just say this. The argument of the Republicans in last November's election was, ``The middle class should vote for us because all the Democrats do is take your taxes and spend it on poor people''--right?--or minorities or illegal immigrants or criminals or whatever. That was the basic argument, right? ``Government's bad. Vote for us; we'll give you less government, lower taxes, and we'll be harder on all those groups.'' And the voters bought it--wrongly, I think--at least those who voted--because we had done more for the middle class. But you have to understand what middle class is. Middle class is more than an economic designation in America. It's a statement about values. When we say middle class in America what we really mean is, everybody ought to have the chance to be rewarded for their work. If you work hard, raise your kids, obey the law, you ought to have a chance to do better. And what is happening is we are becoming more stratified by economic class, but it's different than before. In other words--and I guess--I'm really glad you asked this, because I'll try to clarify the point I was trying to make before. We do have poor people in America. Mostly they're young women and their little children, but there are also a lot of working people who are poor, who are making the minimum wage or right near it, which is why I'm for raising the minimum wage. And then we have a lot of wealthy people in America, and our economy is producing more wealthy people, and that is good. Entrepreneurs--more entrepreneurs are becoming millionaires today than ever before, who started with nothing-- not inherited wealth--but are making money. That is a good thing, not a bad thing. But what is happening is that the middle class itself is splitting apart. That's the point I'm try- ing to make. The great American middle class, which basically rose more or less evenly with the poor and the rich in income from the end of World War II to the late seventies--everybody rose together about the same amount--the American middle class itself is now splitting apart, based largely on education, age, and job description. And if you don't have the skills and you're not in the place--in the workplace, where you can hook into one of these groups that is growing, then you tend to work harder every year for lower wages. That's what I'm pointing out. So what do we try to do? In the economic plan in '93, we had one big tax cut. We cut taxes for working families with children to make sure nobody who was working 40 hours a week with children would be below the poverty line. That's what the earned-income tax credit was about. On average this year it's worth about $1,000 in lower taxes to families of four with income of under $26,000. Why do we do that? To reward work and family and lift people, keep trying to push people toward the middle class. So this whole education thing--we know if our Government here can continue to follow responsible economic policies, we can create jobs, we can have growth. But we still--that will not raise incomes. And it won't overcome this inequality, this splitting apart of the middle class. So that's what I'm saying. The middle class mentality, which has been--what made America great, requires us to follow policies that lift everybody's income. I will close with just one thing. I had an interview with Money Magazine the other day. Do you all know Money Magazine? It's a--and they did a readers' survey, they told me. And they said--I guess I'm jumping my interview. They'll probably be mad at me, but--[laughter]. They said that their readers said that they recognize that we have lowered the deficit, created jobs, sparked an economic recovery, and two-thirds of them were still worried about their future. Right? ``Yes, you lowered the deficit, created jobs, there's an economic recovery. Am I worried? You bet I am. Why? Because of all this churning instability in the global economy.'' That is our challenge. We've got to find a way to keep the entrepreneurship, keep the growth going, but lift the middle class folks that are good people that have been left behind. That's why I'm glad to see some of the nontraditional students in the community college. That means that they're going to make the transfer from the middle class that might be left behind to the middle class that's surging ahead. And we need more of that, which is why we don't need to be in a position of reducing our commitment to education at the end of this century when the next century will trigger opportunity to education more than ever before. Thank you very much. I have to go. Thank you.”