Bill Clinton: “I think that I should not comment on an antitrust action. But I will say this. I've had more businesspeople…”

“I think that I should not comment on an antitrust action. But I will say this. I've had more businesspeople spontaneously say to me they agree with it, than I have say they disagree. So I don't think you can view that pro- or anti-business. Secondly, if you look at the work we have done from the beginning, from the first day I was here, I think this is the most pro-business Democratic administration we've had in decades and decades. And I think the results show that. If I were antibusiness, I've done a poor job of demonstrating it, given the--we've had a record number of new small businesses start every year; we've done a lot to reduce the regulatory burdens and specific tax burdens on small businesses, to give businesses incentives to hire people that were difficult to place, and a whole range of things we've done that we've been asked to do. Now, on the HMO front, I would also like to say that there were 43 HMO's that endorsed all the principal elements of the Patients' Bill of Rights and asked for Federal legislation because they said they could not afford to extend these rights to their patients if their competitors didn't have to. So even there, there is some difference of opinion. I just simply--I've never wanted to put them out of business. Remember in '93--when we had the health care debate in '94, I repeatedly said that I thought managed care on balance had been good for America, that before the managed care came along, health care costs were increasing at 3 times the rate of inflation. And that was unsustainable. Democratic Presidential Candidate Bill Bradley's Health Plan Mr. Cavuto. But the irony is now that it's Bill Bradley who's trumpeting that initial cause of yours and not your own Vice President.”