Bill Clinton: “Well, I gave them a budget, of course, that did not break the caps, but it would require them to raise some revenues…”

“Well, I gave them a budget, of course, that did not break the caps, but it would require them to raise some revenues from tobacco. But the main thing that I would say is, I want them to work with me to meet our fundamental priorities. We can give the American people an honest, credible budget that extends the life of Social Security and Medicare, meets our responsibilities in education and other important areas, and leaves us free to pay down that debt and to put America on a target to be debt-free in the next 15 years. I hope they will work with me in that spirit. We have to come together and work together to get anything done, and we can do that. I cite these examples over and over again, but the Welfare Reform Act in 1996, coming on top of the initiatives we had taken in the previous 3 years, has now given us the lowest welfare rolls in 32 years; and the Balanced Budget Act completed the work of the economic package of 1993, and we now have this $115 billion surplus. So the American people know we can do things together, and that's how we're going to have to do this. Social Security”