Bill Clinton: “Well, it got bogged down because the people who are making a huge amount of money out of the system that we have spent a…”

“Well, it got bogged down because the people who are making a huge amount of money out of the system that we have spent a lot of money to terrify the people who do have health care today into thinking that if our bill passed it would make it worse and it would lead to more Government intervention in the health care system. That was not the truth. And what we've got to do is to come back and find a way to demonstrate to the American people what we want to do is to protect the plans that they have now that they like, but to make sure we cover the people who don't have health insurance and we control the costs better. But here's the fundamental problem. Every other country in the world with an advanced economy, every other wealthy country, spends between 9 and 10 percent of its income on health care to cover everybody. We spend 14 percent of our income, or another $240 billion, and we have almost 40 million people without insurance. Another million Americans in working families lost their health insurance last year. Well, the people that are making that extra $240 billion by and large don't want us to change. And they spent somewhere between $200 million and $300 million lobbying against our health care plan. Then again, the Republican congressional leadership operated on the theory that they could not permit any kind of health care to pass because it would be politically beneficial to the Democrats and to the administration. I wanted them to have half the credit. I wanted this to be bipartisan. And we've just got to keep dealing with this. The health care problem is the main cause of the big Government deficit. It is a main source of insecurity for working people who have jobs. And we're going in reverse. We're the only major country where we're actually losing ground in providing coverage to people. So I'm going to come back and try to find a way that the American people will support and will not be frightened by, to cover the people who don't have coverage, to protect the coverage of the people who do have coverage, and to slow the rate of cost increases. Midterm Elections Mr. Meyer. Mr. President, I'd like to ask you another political question. My 17-year-old daughter, Andrea, told me to pass along the message to you that she intends to vote for you in 1996 when she is allowed to vote in a Presidential election for the first time. And that's the good news. The bad news is, why isn't Tom Foley as excited about you as my daughter?”