Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, I want to thank you for coming. Welcome. As you probably know, we've been doing a whole series of…”

“Well, first of all, I want to thank you for coming. Welcome. As you probably know, we've been doing a whole series of these press conferences, both when I'm out and when I'm here and also some of it electronically, but as much in person-to-person as possible. And I would like to give as much time as possible to answer your questions. But I think I should begin with a story that Charles Stenholm told this morning. He's the chairman of the Conservative Caucus in the House who, by the way, thinks we should make some changes in the program during the conference. But he acknowledged today that--he said every time someone calls me criticizing this program, they've normally had their heads filled full of misinformation by people who are criticizing them without telling everything. And every time I talk somebody through it, they wind up thinking it's not so bad. Last night Leon Panetta went to a Maryland district that's fairly representative of the United States with Congressman Cardin and went through the whole program. And afterward the Congressman asked the people, ``Do you want me to vote for this, or do you want me to delay it 60 days more or just let it to go to pieces and see what happens?'' And three to one, they wanted him to support it. Then the Wall Street Journal last week finally began something that has not happened up here. This is not your issue but ours in Washington. They actually went around and started asking people who said they were with small business groups opposed to this plan if they knew what was in it, and it turned out they didn't. And over 90 percent of the small businesses in America will actually be eligible for a tax reduction under this program, because they have no tax increase on the income taxes, and we doubled the expensing provisions for small businesses. So the program--I just want to emphasize again--is the only program presented that provides $500 billion of deficit reduction, an equal balance between spending cuts and tax increases. For every $5 in spending cuts, there are $5 in tax increases; $4 of those come from people with incomes in the upper 5 percent of the income brackets; $1 comes from the middle class. Working families with incomes of under $30,000--and there are a bunch of them in Georgia--are held harmless in this program. An average family of four with an income of $50,000, we're looking at a ceiling of about $50 a year, which is less than a buck a month to get the deficit down and provide some of the economic incentives to grow some jobs, which I think is very, very important. So I think it's a balanced plan. I think it's a fair plan. And if you look at the alternative that was presented in the Senate, it's the only serious plan so far that's been up that really has big deficit reduction in a fair way. Questions? Go ahead. Georgia Congressional Support”