Bill Clinton: “What we did, in response to the Senator from Oklahoma-- and maybe we were misinformed about this--we went back to our…”

“What we did, in response to the Senator from Oklahoma-- and maybe we were misinformed about this--we went back to our last recession under the previous President Bush. We thought that would be a good model as to what was done five times to extend unemployment insurance benefits. We took the language the first Bush administration and the bipartisan body here at that time decided was the appropriate legislative language to bring about the result that people agreed was needed. If it was in some way misguided to rely upon the first Bush administration's extension of unemployment insurance, then we are going to say we did the best we could to look at what had been effective and worked in the past. In direct response, the people who are still being counted in the unemployment insurance is a relatively small number because, obviously, to get them on and off does take some bureaucratic and technical adjustments. There are certainly some--I am sure I could find a few in Oklahoma and a few in New York. But the fact is the overwhelming number of people who will be eligible and will receive benefits are people who deserve it, and that is, I think, the goal we should be addressing.”