Bill Clinton: “Our efforts to decrease the deficit--let me say this--I'm calling for twice as much in budget cuts as I am for the cost…”

“Our efforts to decrease the deficit--let me say this--I'm calling for twice as much in budget cuts as I am for the cost of the middle class bill of rights, the tax relief for the middle class. So my tax cuts are paid for, and there is further deficit reduction in our budget. And we will keep a tight rein on the budget deficit. The one thing that we have no control over in the budget deficit is the impact of higher interest rates on the deficit. The American people should know that whenever interest rates are raised by the Fed, among other things, the cost of carrying the Nation's debt goes up. So we can't do anything about that. And in that sense, the deficit will not go down as much as I had hoped, because the interest rates have gone up. You can't overcompensate for that. There's nothing to be done about it. But we're doing a better job in controlling inflation and health care than I thought we would a year or so ago; the whole country is. I don't mean just the Government; the people in health care and the people in business are working harder on it. We have a lot of budget cuts that are very important and significant in this budget, and I'm looking forward to working with Congress to see how we can do even better. And I think that I'm encouraged by what they said, that they want to pay for their tax cuts. So I think that this--when I submit the budget, I think it'll be the beginning of a very positive thing. I don't have bad feelings about it. China”