Bill Clinton: “Well, I think you should not assume--the Democratic Party, first of all, is much more diverse than the Republican Party…”

“Well, I think you should not assume--the Democratic Party, first of all, is much more diverse than the Republican Party but, secondly, has been much more unified with me than the Republicans were with President Bush. That's another thing. Look at the historical perspective. Here's a little question: There was a Republican House budget plan and my plan voted on back to back in the House. There are more Democrats than Republicans, right? Now, the Republican plan was no tax increases, the Kasich plan. He lost more Republicans for his plan than I lost Democrats for mine because it was so unfair to the elderly, the poor, the middle class. That was the other plan in the House. Last year, 1992, when the Bush budget came up in the House of Representatives, 75 percent of the Republicans, not the Democrats, the Republicans, voted against it. Why? Because it was a political document. I mean, I have given them a real budget, and it's tough. Let me just say one thing in closing. The reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, the political reporter, went out and did something that we should have arranged. I wish I had thought about it, but he did it about 2 weeks ago. He interviewed all these budget experts who work for private companies but whose job it is to know about the Federal budget. And he wrote an article which said that the consensus was that my claims were accurate and that Senator Dole's attacks were not. And the budget expert for Price Waterhouse, not an employee of my administration, said that the budget we had presented was the most honest budget in more than a decade and the only thing that was wrong with it was that it would produce more deficit reduction than I was claiming. And we can get you a copy of the article. It was very impressive. But I think the Democrats, when you think about the withering attack that they have been under, constant misinformation, and almost no way to get the facts out except through their newsletters--and we have begun to run ads for some of them now, those that have been subject to ad attacks--I think there's been a remarkable cohesion in a very diverse party because there is now a consensus that the time has come to do something about the deficit and to try to grow some jobs. And that's what we're trying to do. And I think they'll do it before August 5th. I'll be very surprised if they really want to go to an August recess, have all this unresolved, and come back here and fool around in September and October and not deal with the other problems of America. I think it will be a mistake, and I don't think they'll do it. Thanks.”