Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, when I remember saying it was unacceptable, they were advocating a one percent across the board…”

“Well, first of all, when I remember saying it was unacceptable, they were advocating a one percent across the board which some thought would have to be 6 percent to avoid getting in the Social Security Trust Fund. This one is, I think, about a third, a little more than a third of what their last offer was on one percent. It also is written in such a way as to preserve the management flexibility of the departments so that we can fulfill the mission. Let me give you just one example. When the Pentagon--do you remember when the one percent across-the-board proposal was made and the Pentagon said, ``Gosh, we may have to lay off 38,000 uniform and non-uniform personnel?'' That was on the assumption that they would have to take the across-the-board dollar amount but fulfill every mandate Congress had imposed in the defense budget. And so now they've given the Secretaries some flexibility so that we can maintain the core responsibilities of Government. Furthermore, we now have agreements in education and in the environment and in other areas which have raised the investment level to such a point that we can take that across-the-board cut, still have a real increase, still be moving forward. So I think we're in a very different environment than we were just a few days ago, and I'm quite pleased by this. Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Chechnya”