Bill Clinton: “That's right. There are two problems there. The main reasons for that are the proposal on food stamps, which I think may…”

“That's right. There are two problems there. The main reasons for that are the proposal on food stamps, which I think may be moderated some, and what I consider to be excessive cuts in assistance to legal immigrants. We're not talking about illegal immigrants. So before our budget negotiations broke up, I asked the Speaker and then- Senator Dole--now it would be Senator Lott, of course--to consider whether or not we ought to give assistance to the children of legal immigrants, at least who were in trouble through no fault of their own; the parents had an accident or got cancer or were mugged in a 7-Eleven or something. Those kind of folks, it seems to me, we ought to take care of the children. Now, if we did that, then I believe you'd see a continued reduction in poverty. Keep in mind, we let the States experiment with moving people from welfare to work. I have granted 67 experiments to 40 States. So 75 percent of the people on welfare today are already under welfare-to-work programs, which have helped to reduce the welfare rolls by 1.3 million. Those kids are better off, not worse off, when their folks get off welfare. So that's what I want to do for the whole country. Mr. Brokaw. In 1992 you said we're going to end welfare as we now know it, as we have been practicing it in this country. But most of your welfare proposals have been reacting to what the Republicans have proposed in the last year or so. There have not been----”