Bill Clinton: “I'd like to say something about both these presentations. First of all, the way the new markets initiative works in…”

“I'd like to say something about both these presentations. First of all, the way the new markets initiative works in terms of who gets the tax credits and who qualifies, the way this works is, people that invest in a business enterprise can get up to a 25 percent tax credit for the money they put up, then they qualify, for every dollar they put up, for $2 in bank loans that are government- guaranteed, and the government guarantee dramatically lowers the interest rates on the bank loan, so that between the tax credit and the lower interest rates, you reduce the relative risk of investing in these areas to make it more attractive. And existing businesses qualify every bit as much as new businesses do. It is the area, where do the people live? What is their per capita income? What is the unemployment rate? How much do we need the new investment here? So we could never get into--it would be a bureaucratic nightmare to try to make distinctions between existing and new businesses. Everybody's eligible. It's people we're trying to help and places we're trying to reach. The only other thing I would like to say is to thank you for what Univision is doing here and for what Univision doubtless will do to publicize this meeting to the Hispanic world in America. As you know, I'm very close to Henry Cisneros, and I think that the American people should know that, next to the Vice President, the two people most responsible for everything we've done in this community development area over the last 6 years are the present HUD Secretary, Andrew Cuomo, and his predecessor, Henry Cisneros. So this is, indeed, something to celebrate. So the only thing I want to say is when you start building that building down here, hire some of these folks and make sure it's a good deal. Thank you very much. Thank you all.”