Bill Clinton: “Perhaps. But it depends on what--let me just give you an example. I'll give you an example of something I've studied.…”

“Perhaps. But it depends on what--let me just give you an example. I'll give you an example of something I've studied. Right now, we give corporations, right now, a deduction for the cost of health care and education and other fringe benefits up to a certain ceiling. And some companies go beyond that ceiling. The chairman of United Technologies, for example, gave a speech to the Washington Press Club the other day in which he pointed out what their policy was. And their policy is if you want to go back for any degree program, undergraduate or graduate, whether or not it's related to your job, they will provide half the time--you have to do half of it on your time; they'll give you half the time--and they will pay the tuition costs up to--I forget whatever it is. It's a pretty hefty chunk of money for them, but they're in a position to do it, of course. Maybe it's $11,000 a year or something. You can get a copy of the speech he gave, the United Technologies chairman--it was a couple of months ago-- before the Washington Press Club. So he suggested--he pointed out, he said, ``I can afford to do this, our company can, because we're a high-tech, high-wage company, and we're in an area of growing opportunity.'' But he was saying that he thought that there, in effect, should not be caps on the deductibility for corporations for the education of their work force. It shouldn't be subject to the same constraints that you--there's a social policy subjecting health care to it because otherwise you'd give everybody all their pay raise in health care--you can argue that. But he said, ``In education I think the tax law should be changed to give an even bigger deduction, not that we need it, but other companies do.'' Well, that's one of the things we're looking into, because we know that there are still many areas of economic endeavor in this country where there's a chronic shortage of skilled people. And most of the people who can make it into a successful career at the companies that are now downsizing could do a lot of other things. The trick is to find a way for them to do it that doesn't have their lives disrupted for a year. Gambling”