Bill Clinton: “Let me deal with the questions separately. First of all, on the tax credit, my position is that all working people…”

“Let me deal with the questions separately. First of all, on the tax credit, my position is that all working people should be made eligible for it--the Senate bill in that regard is better than the House bill--and that we shouldn't have some other offset, like reducing the child care credit as well as the children's tax credit in the new bill. I understand the Republicans are arguing because they want to save money on this to pay for the capital gains and the other things that they want. They're arguing that this is, in effect, a welfare thing because you're giving a child care credit to people who aren't paying income taxes--now, that's their argument--because of the other tax credits people are entitled to. But let's just take the income group they are dealing with, working families with incomes between $22,000 and $25,000. Now, suppose you've got a rookie police officer in a medium-size city in the South, the average entry-level salary is about $23,000, and it's a woman or a man with two kids at home. This police officer is paying Federal taxes, a considerable Federal payroll tax. And to treat--to characterize them as welfare recipients because they would be made eligible for the same help that people making $31,000 a year would get to raise their children, I think is wrong. So that's an area where we simply have a disagreement. I was encouraged that the Senate moved closer to us than the House. This is something I expect to work out. On the other question, I wouldn't--do I think we're not going to make an agreement because of reported divisions within Republican ranks? No, I do not expect that to be prohibitive. I think that there was a lot of tension within their caucus, obviously, over this disaster aid bill, but in the end they did the right thing. And the leaders did the right thing. And I think that nobody likes to go through that and have your position not prevail. And so that was understandable. But I think as time passes, they will see that their leaders did the right thing and that the country is better off and that we're moving in the right direction. So I don't expect splits to paralyze us. Peter. Proposed Tobacco Agreement”