Bill Clinton: “Let's look at that. When I ran for President, I said we'd cut the deficit in half in 4 years; we've cut it by 60…”

“Let's look at that. When I ran for President, I said we'd cut the deficit in half in 4 years; we've cut it by 60 percent. I said that our economic plan would produce 8 million jobs; we have 10\1/ 2\ million new jobs. We're number one in autos again, record numbers of new small businesses. I said we'd pass a crime bill that would put 100,000 police on the street, ban assault weapons, and deal with the problems that ought to be dealt with with capital punishment, including capital punishment for drug kingpins. And we did that. I said we would change the way welfare works. And even before the bill passed, we had moved nearly 2 million people from welfare to work, working with States and communities. I said we'd get tougher on child support, and child support enforcement is up 50 percent. I said that I would work for tax relief for middle class Americans. The deficit was bigger than I thought it was going to be, and I think they're better off, all of us are, that we got those interest rates down and the deficit down. The Republicans talk about it, but we're the first administration in anybody's lifetime looking at this program to bring that deficit down 4 years in a row. We still gave tax cuts to 15 million working Americans. And now I've got a plan that has been out there for 2 years--it could have been passed already, but instead the Republicans shut the Government down to try to force their budget and their plan on me, and I couldn't take that. But we'll get the rest of that tax relief. And so I think when you can look at those results, you know that the plan I have laid out for the future has a very good chance of being enacted if you'll give me a chance to build that bridge to the 21st century. Mr. Lehrer. Senator. Senator Dole. Well, there he goes again--I mean, it's a line that has been used before--but exaggerating all of the things he did. He didn't do all these things. Let's take all of these 4, you know, years in a row. He came in with a high growth rate. The 1990 budget agreement, which some didn't like, had some very tough cost controls. It put a lot of pressure on Congress. The S&L crisis was over. They were starting to sell assets; all of that money was coming in. And he cut defense an extra $60 billion, threw a lot of people out of work. He talks about a smaller Government. There are actually more people in Government, except for the people in defense-related jobs. They're gone. The Government is bigger than it was when President Kennedy was around, even though he says it's not. In addition, the Republican Congress cut $53 billion. So let's give credit where credit is due. Governor Engler in Michigan cut taxes 21 times, created a lot of new jobs. So did Governor Thompson. So did Governor Rowland. And a lot of people out there deserve credit, Mr. President. When I'm President of the United States, we're going to have a Governors council, and we're going to work directly with the Governors, Republicans and Democrats, to get power back to the people and back to the States.”