Bill Clinton: “And I do believe you can have tax cuts--look, the weather is a lot better than if it was so hot people were falling out.…”

“And I do believe you can have tax cuts--look, the weather is a lot better than if it was so hot people were falling out. When I was on the train trip, we took 30 people out of one rally, it was so hot. They were all fine; they just needed a little water. So we're going to get a little water in advance. Crop prices are up; this won't hurt them any. This is good. We can have a tax cut, folks, but it needs to be targeted to the people who need it for the purposes we need it, to childrearing, to education, to buying that first-time home. I'm for an IRA that you can withdraw from without penalty to buy a home, to educate a child, to deal with a health problem. I think you ought to be able to sell your home and never pay any taxes on the gain. I think you ought to be able to send yourselves to college or your children to college and never have to pay taxes on that money. That's our plan. But we pay for it all and balance the budget. Our friends say, ``We're going to give you more money. We'll give you a lot more money.'' They're going to throw money at you; that's what they say. But what they don't say is, in order to pay for their tax cut, they have to have much bigger cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment than I vetoed the last time. They still won't pay for it. That means a bigger deficit. What does that mean in Dyersburg, Tennessee, a bigger deficit? Well, look around here. It means a higher home mortgage payment because interest rates will go up. It means a higher car payment. It means higher credit card payments. And look at all these little businesses here. It means every time they want to borrow money they will have to pay 2 percent more on their money. It means fewer investments in small business and fewer jobs. We have to have a healthy small-business economy if we're going to grow America, especially in the small towns. We want to keep interest rates low, not up. I want to build a bridge to the 21st century that will enable all Americans to take care of their families. That's why we worked on health care reform and why, in our budget plan, we're going to be able to help families who lose their jobs to keep their health insurance for at least 6 months. That's why we're helping small businesses to make it simpler to take out pension plans for themselves and their employees and to keep them when you move from job to job. That's why we want to change the family leave law to say you ought to be able to take a little time off from work to go to your kid's parent-teacher conference or take your child to a regular doctor's appointment. That's the kind of thing we need to do to build this country. Will you help us build that bridge to the 21st century? Audience members. Yes!”