Bill Clinton: “The answer to your question is, I can't. But you can't fairly characterize my program as that. I have cut more spending…”

“The answer to your question is, I can't. But you can't fairly characterize my program as that. I have cut more spending than my predecessor did. My budget calls for $250 billion-plus in spending cuts net. The first thing I did was cut the White House staff by 25 percent, even though I've already received more mail in 3\1/2\ months than came to the White House in all of 1992. If any of you have written me and I haven't answered, that's why. [Laughter] I cut the administrative expenses of the Federal Government 14 percent across-the- board. I froze Federal employee pay in the first year and cut back their raises for 4 years. There have been massive spending cuts in this budget. So that's just a big myth that there hasn't been. I also worked hard to pass a budget resolution that would make it clear that we couldn't raise any taxes unless we cut spending. Now, let me address the middle class tax cut specifically. Number one, after the election, after the election, the previous administration announced that the Government deficit was going to be $50 billion a year bigger in 3 of the next 4 years, a year, after the election. Therefore, I concluded that I could not in good conscience give anybody an across-the-board tax cut in the first year of my Presidency. I still think there should be an evening-up of the tax burden. Secondly, it became clear to me that the best thing I could do for the middle class was to bring interest rates down and to try to get control of our budget. So I proposed a plan of budget cuts first and tax increases that are highly progressive. And let me just mention a couple of things that you may not know, having heard the press about the tax program I presented to the Congress. While it does raise about $250 billion over a 5-year period, it also provides significant relief to small business. Expensing provisions in the Tax Code, for example, are raised from $10,000 to $25,000 a year. That will lower a lot of people's tax bills. For people with incomes under $30,000, we increased the earned-income tax credit so much that they will not be affected by this tax increase in any way. And over 70 percent of the money that will be raised in this program will come from people with incomes net above $100,000. So it's a progressive program; the burden is broadly spread. If we can bring the deficit down, we'll keep interest rates down. I'd just remind you folks that just since the election, when we announced our intention to seriously reduce the deficit, interest rates dropped dramatically. This year, 74 percent of people under 35 in a bipartisan poll said they thought they had a pretty good chance to buy their own home. Last year, the figure was 47 percent. That's because the interest rates are down. That will put another $100 billion back in the economy. Now, I've got 4 years. Give me 4 years to try to deliver on the middle class tax cut. But the first thing we need to do is drive the deficit down with cuts and some prudent revenue increases. Most of the people paying the taxes are people whose taxes were lowered while their incomes increased in the 1980's. And I think it's very important to get the budget back in balance. I will also tell you that all of our major competitors impose tax levies at higher rates than we do, and they manage to grow rather briskly. I don't like taxes. The State I ran, Arkansas, in all the years I was Governor, kept taxes in the bottom 5 of all of the States in the country as a percentage of income. I was very proud of that. I don't like this, but we've got to get a hold of this deficit. It's going to kill us if we don't. Justice System”