Bill Clinton: “But I do think that the world is in a different place now. I think we--whatever happens, about things we don't know…”

“But I do think that the world is in a different place now. I think we--whatever happens, about things we don't know about--you know, no economist has an accurate model of how this has all changed the business cycle or what productivity has really done to growth. But what we know is that if we are fiscally responsible and we continue to pursue this course that you and I discussed here today, that we will perform far better than we otherwise would, that we'll be better citizens in terms of our relationships with one another in America, and we'll be better citizens of the world. We know that, regardless, we'll get better performance and we'll be a better society. So I hope that we can keep pushing all of this. Federal Budget Surplus Mr. Dunham. I wouldn't be a good BusinessWeek reporter if I didn't ask about the trillion-dollar windfall, as it were, and if you see this as on opening to a possible agreement that would cover everything from Medicare, with the prescription drug benefit that you talked about today to, on the Republican side, perhaps tax cuts that would be larger than what you had spelled out in the State of the Union?”