Bill Clinton: “The economic condition of the American people is a whole lot better than the economy of Japan and Germany right now…”

“The economic condition of the American people is a whole lot better than the economy of Japan and Germany right now, although the German economy is coming back. We have lower unemployment; we've produced more jobs; we have low inflation. Now, when--I would remind you that when I was in charge of economic policy and the Congress was supporting it--I'm still in charge of economic policy; the question is, what's the Congress going to do--we had lower deficits, low inflation, high growth, and a dollar that was stronger. I have no idea what is happening in the markets with the dollar, and neither does anybody else entirely. You ask them, a lot of people who make a living doing this think it's maybe speculation. But I tell you this: We do have to reduce the deficit further. But I would just like to point out that if you look at the total Government deficit in the United States on an annual basis today, it is tied with Japan for the lowest deficit in the world. It is lower than Germany's. It is lower than any other European country. What is going on here? If they're saying something about the deficit, it's not because of the way we've managed the last 2 years, it's because of the massive accumulated debt of the previous 12 years which requires a lot of borrowing to finance. So what does that mean? That means we have to do more deficit reduction. What does that mean? It means it's unwise to be out here talking about tax cuts until you explain how you're going to reduce the deficit. Deficit reduction and appropriate, targeted, modest tax cuts, that's my policy. The world markets may not know it yet, but that's going to be the policy of the United States. The United States will continue to reduce the deficit. We'll reduce it more. We will have a responsible policy, and the dollar will respond accordingly. Jonathan Pollard Espionage Case Mr. Blitzer. Mr. President, I want to talk U.S. politics in a second, but one loose end. There's story out today that you're thinking about a swap that would free Jonathan Pollard, the U.S. naval intelligence analyst who was convicted of espionage for Israel, as part of a three-way deal with Israel, Russia, and the U.S. First of all, is that true? And second of all, do you think that--he's now served 10 years--is that long enough for the crime that he committed?”