Bill Clinton: “I believe that the purpose of politics is to give people the tools to make the most of their own lives, to reinforce the…”

“I believe that the purpose of politics is to give people the tools to make the most of their own lives, to reinforce the values of opportunity and responsibility, and to build a sense of community so we're all working together. I don't believe in discrimination. I believe you can protect the environment and grow the economy. I believe that we have to do these things with a Government that's smaller and less bureaucratic, but that we have to do them nonetheless. It's inconvenient for Senator Dole, but the truth is I've reduced the size of Government more than my Republican predecessors. And I did stop them, I admit that; I sure stopped their budget. Their budget cut enforcement for the Environmental Protection Agency by a third. It cut funds to clean up toxic waste dumps--with 10 million of our kids still living within 4 miles of a toxic waste dump--by a third. It ended the principle of the polluters should pay for those toxic waste dumps unless it was very recent. Their budget weakened our support for education $30 billion, even cut funds for scholarships and college loans. Their budget cut $270 billion in Medicare. And finally, their budget withdrew the national guarantee of health care to poor children, families with children with handicaps, the elderly in nursing homes, poor pregnant women. It was wrong for the country, and calling it conservative won't make it right. It was a bad decision for America and would have been bad for our future if I hadn't stopped it. Senator Dole. Well, the President can define himself in any way he wants, but I think we have to look at the record. Go back to the time he was, what, Texas director for George McGovern. George McGovern is a friend of mine, so I don't mean--but he was a liberal, proud liberal. I've just finished reading a book. I think it's called, what is it, ``The Demise of the Democratic Party'' by Ronald Radosh or something, talking about all the liberal influences in the administration, whether it's organized labor or whether it's the Hollywood elite or whether it's some of the media elite or whether it's the labor unions or whatever. And so I think--you take a look at it, but the bottom line is this: I think the American people probably lose sight of all of these bills and all these things. They want to know what's going to happen to them. They've all got a lot of anxieties out there. Did anybody complain when you raised taxes? Did anybody go out and ask the people, ``How are you going to pay the extra money?'' That's why we want an economic package. We want the Government to pinch their pennies for a change instead of the people pinching their pennies. That's what our message is to people watching, not all this back and forth--you voted this way, you voted that way. We want a better America as we go into the next century.”