Bill Clinton: “It is a tax cut of a net of $85 billion, which is-- over 5 years--which is considerably smaller than we were--they were…”

“It is a tax cut of a net of $85 billion, which is-- over 5 years--which is considerably smaller than we were--they were discussing. And then in the second 5 years, it must not exceed about a hundred and--what is it? About $170 billion, $165 billion, something like that. And you'll get briefings on that; back at the White House they'll explain it. But also, we have gone as far as we could, keep in mind, the tax-writing committees were not part of this negotiating process, the budget committees were. So let me finish. We have gone as far as we could also in discussing what the components are. You know the thing the Republicans want in it. You know we want an education tax cut as well as some environmental relief for brownfields and some other very specific things, and we want to protect the tax cuts that are progressive in our Tax Code, particularly the earned-income tax credit for low income people, the low income housing credit, and we want to try to protect the pension programs from being raided. And we've gone about as far as we can in doing that in an agreement that does not include the leaders of the tax-writing committee. And Secretary Rubin, who is our guardian on that, finally signed off and said, ``Well, this is the best we're going to be able to do.'' Budget Negotiations and Reaction”