Bill Clinton: “Well, I don't think--no, I don't think we should overlook it, I think it ought to prompt us to action. But let's…”

“Well, I don't think--no, I don't think we should overlook it, I think it ought to prompt us to action. But let's understand why the trade deficit is so large. The trade deficit is large because we live in an integrated global economy, and our economy has been strong while the Asian economy has been in trouble. What does that mean? When their economy is in trouble, the value of their currency goes down. What does that mean? That means that compared to yesterday, if their currency goes down, their money is worth less than ours in the same amounts. That means it becomes--their goods that they sell to us become cheaper, and it means our goods that we would sell to them become more expensive. Almost the entire increase in the trade deficit is due to the Asian economic trouble, which is why, since January, I have been saying we should make our proper contribution to the International Monetary Fund to promote economic reform and economic recovery in Asia. And the fact that we have not done so is endangering the livelihood of American farmers and American factory workers because we are not making the exports, especially to Asia, that we otherwise could be making if those economies were coming back. And a critical part of that is our contribution to the International Monetary Fund. So, we should not ignore it, because, as I said in the State of the Union Address way back in January, our welfare is tied to the welfare of Asia. We've got 16 million new jobs in the last 5\1/2\ years; 30 percent of our economic growth is due to exports. A significant area of export growth has been Asia. That's why I worked hard to--the other big area of real growth has been in Latin America. And what I've tried to do is to head these things off. You may remember a couple of years ago when we moved in aggressively to help Mexico when their economy was in trouble and a lot of people criticized that. But Mexico paid back their loan ahead of schedule and at profit to the United States. And they are now a functioning economic partner with us again. That's what we need in Asia. So, the American people should be concerned about this, but we should know that there is a disciplined answer. We need to restore growth in Japan, restore growth in Asia, and our major goal here for our own action should be to pay our fair share to the International Monetary Fund so we can support economic recovery, so they can afford to buy our products, and so there's some greater parity in the prices of our products. Meanwhile, what you see is a product of the strength, not the weakness, of the American economy. Tax Cuts”