Bill Clinton: “There can be a lot of bipartisanship. First of all, I have not said consistently no. I strongly supported applying to…”

“There can be a lot of bipartisanship. First of all, I have not said consistently no. I strongly supported applying to Congress the laws that apply to the private sector. I have supported limiting the ability of Congress to impose unfunded mandates on State and local government. I support the line-item veto. I support significant reform in the Federal regulatory process. But where I do not agree with the extreme elements of the contract-- and I might add, where also a number of Republican Senators do not agree with it and where, apparently, some Republican House Members no longer agree with it--Star Wars, eroding the 100,000 police commitment, cutting Medicare to pay for tax cuts. On those things, I think I'm obligated to say where I don't agree. And that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to be as clear as I can be, hoping we can work together, hoping we can get legislation out of this. I have not done what was done frequently in the previous 2 years, which is to say, ``We're walking away from this no matter what it is, even if we have to change our position on it,'' which is what they did on the crime bill. So I'm looking forward to this. We're still going to make some good things happen, and we can still do it. But I owe it to the American people to protect them. They did not, in my judgment, ratify every extreme element of the contract as defined in every piece of legislation there. I am not trying to thwart them; I am trying to give them an opportunity to know exactly where I stand and to work with them. This is Dr. Tyson's day, and I want to let her answer questions. Thank you. Mexican Loan Agreement”