Bill Clinton: “Most of the jobs that we believe, based on our economic analysis, will be created are private sector jobs that will be…”

“Most of the jobs that we believe, based on our economic analysis, will be created are private sector jobs that will be full-time jobs. The private sector has got to be the engine of economic growth. If you look at this economic plan, we do invest some more money in partnerships for new technologies and in defense conversion and to help companies train their workers. But most of the new jobs are going to be created by the private sector. We want to invest in more jobs, in infrastructure building, road-building, and things of that kind. But the great vast bulk of these jobs will be private sector jobs. Let me just give you some examples of how they'll be created. First of all, to keep interest rates down, you'll create more jobs. Secondly, this plan provides economic incentives for people to invest in new plant and equipment, for people to invest more in their small businesses, for people to do more research and development. All those things are directly related to job development. If you have more investment in the private sector, you will have more job development. So I see this as a private sector job initiative. And exactly on what timetable these jobs will be created depends on the general recovery not only of the American economy but of the global economy. The one thing that could prevent us from meeting this goal is if the other countries of the world don't join us in a new trade agreement and pursue foolish economic policies and collapse their own economies. In order to grow the American economy, we need a growing world economy. But I think we're going to have some good success in coordinating our economic policies to generate more jobs. Let me just say this. In spite of all the fits and starts in the economy since the beginning of the year, through the first 6 months, we've had about 900,000 new jobs created, over 90 percent of them private sector jobs. And I hope that we can accelerate that pace in the months and years ahead. I think we can if we can get this economic plan passed and put the health care plan out and, to respond to one of the earlier questions, to allay the fears of some of the people in the business community about the health care plan so they can see it will be good for business, not bad for business. Then I think you'll see a lot more investment coming out of the lower interest rates. But most of this job growth is going to have to come in the private sector. The Government can't do it.”