Bill Clinton: “Good morning. On Monday, July 4th, we celebrate America's birth. Two hundred eighteen years ago, our Founding Fathers…”

“Good morning. On Monday, July 4th, we celebrate America's birth. Two hundred eighteen years ago, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the untested idea of liberty, equality, and democracy. Those ideas have survived and thrived because they're at the heart of the only system of government we know that produces wisdom from debate and consensus from division. Indeed right now, we're seeing how our democratic process can produce results that constantly renew the pledges of our Founders, and we're making substantial progress. I sought the Presidency because our economy was in trouble and because our Government wasn't working. We put in place an economic plan designed to restore the middle class and guarantee growth and jobs by cutting over $250 billion in spending; reducing over 250,000 Government positions; offering tax cuts to 15 million working families, 90 percent of our small businesses, and increases to about 1.5 percent of our people to ask them to help pay down the deficit. The result has been a remarkable recovery: 3 million jobs, a 1.7 percent drop in unemployment, 3 years of deficit reduction in a row for the first time since Harry Truman was President of the United States. But the agenda for change requires more. It requires us to empower the people of the United States to do well in a world filled with change and competition.…”