Bill Clinton: “It's nice to hear your voice. I want to thank all of you for participating in this radio press conference or town hall…”

“It's nice to hear your voice. I want to thank all of you for participating in this radio press conference or town hall meeting or whatever we want to call it. I'm glad to have the chance to talk with you. Let me just say very briefly by way of summary, the Senate and the House are meeting today, trying to agree on a final version of the economic program which could then be presented for a vote next week. Obviously, I'm try- ing to secure passage of the program. I believe it is very important. I want to emphasize, if I might, some of the major features. First, this is the largest program for deficit reduction in the history of the country, $500 billion. Of every $10 of deficit reduction, half of it is in spending cuts, very significant ones in nondefense as well as in defense, including 150,000-person reduction in the Federal work force and big cuts across the board in many other programs. Second thing I want to say is that of the $5 in new revenues, about 80 percent of them come from the top 5 percent of the American work force. There are no income tax increases on couples with incomes below $180,000 a year. Third thing I want to say is that in addition to reducing the deficit and imposing a fair tax burden, this program does an awful lot to promote job growth. It holds families with incomes of under $30,000 a year harmless. It doubles the expensing provision of small business and makes over 90 percent of the small businesses in America eligible for a tax reduction if they invest more in their businesses. It has a very innovative capital gains tax for investment in small new companies that are capitalized at $50 million a year or less, which should benefit a fast-growing State like Nevada. It has any number of other very important things that could help the technology jobs in your State, including an extension of the research and development tax credit, as well as real initiatives to revive homebuilding and real estate which is why the National Home Builders and the National Realtors, two groups not normally associated with Democratic Party initiatives, have endorsed this program. Yesterday we had almost 70 business executives from all over the country, including 4 big energy company executives, about half of them Republican and of course the other half Democratic, endorsing the program and saying it was important because we had a 20-year low in interest rates, and we had to restore certainty to the economy, keep these interest rates down because we're bringing the deficit down, and get on with other business. We've got a health care issue to deal with, a crime bill to deal with, welfare reform to deal with, all these things that have to be done but can't be done until we first pass the economic plan. With that, I'll be glad to take as many questions as we can. Economic Program”