Bill Clinton: “No, I was talking about everybody who believes that we--that the U.N. is, in effect, not important to the United States…”

“No, I was talking about everybody who believes that we--that the U.N. is, in effect, not important to the United States and to our future. I believe it is important to our future. I think it's also important that the United States and some of our friends, especially Great Britain, have pushed the U.N. for reform. And the Japanese have supported that. We like the idea that the U.N.'s budget has been frozen and that the bureaucracy is being reduced. And I think the people in Congress in both parties who have pushed for that were right, and they should be complimented for that. But I think that having launched this process of reform, if we want to continue to have influence over it, at least we have to pay what we owe here and pay up our past-due obligations. That's the point I was making. I think that we are helped by having a system of shared burdens throughout the world, and I think most Americans feel that way.”