Bill Clinton: “There were several off-the-subject whoppers in that litany. Let me just mention, Senator Dole voted for $900 billion in…”

“There were several off-the-subject whoppers in that litany. Let me just mention, Senator Dole voted for $900 billion in tax increases. His running mate, Jack Kemp, once said that Bob Dole never met a tax he didn't hike. [Laughter] And everybody knows, including the Wall Street Journal, hardly a friend of the Democratic Party or this administration, that the '82 tax increase he sponsored, in inflation- adjusted dollars, was the biggest tax increase in American history. So we ought to at least get the facts out here on the table so we can know where to go from here. Health Care Reform Mr. Lehrer. Senator Dole, you mentioned health reform several times. What do you think should be done about the health care system? Senator Dole. Let me first answer that question about the 1982 tax cut. You know, we were closing loopholes; we were going after big corporations. I know you probably would oppose it, Mr. President, but I think we should have a fairer system and a flatter system. And we will have a fairer, flatter system, and we're going to make the economic package work. Health care: Well, we finally passed the Kassebaum bill. The President was opposed to it in 1993. He wanted to give us this big system that took over about one-seventh the economy, that put on price controls, created all these State alliances, and would cost $1.5 trillion and force people into managed care whether they wanted it or not. Most people want to see their own doctor. They're going to see their own doctor when Bob Dole is President. We won't threaten anybody. So we passed the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill; that will cover about 20 to 25 million people. We've been for that for 4, 5, or 6 years. The President held it up. And even when it finally got near passage, Senator Kennedy held it up for 100 days because he wasn't satisfied with one provision. But it will cover a preexisting condition. If you change your job you're going to be covered. So there are a lot of good things in this bill that we should have done instead of trying this massive, massive takeover by the Federal Government. But then, of course, you had a Democratic Congress, and they didn't want to do that. Until we got a Republican Congress--we finally got action, and I'm very proud of my colleagues in the Republican Party for getting that done. It means a lot to a lot of people watching us tonight.”