Bill Clinton: “Let me say this, are you prepared to stop it? Are you prepared to stop it? When I came to Washington I was amazed when I…”

“Let me say this, are you prepared to stop it? Are you prepared to stop it? When I came to Washington I was amazed when I proposed budgets, that that was the language that was used. The press used it. We all learned to use it from the press. I have seen repeated-- years and years of articles saying, cuts in this, cuts in that, cuts in the other thing. And the question is, if you cut below the rate of inflation plus growth, is that a cut? I think it is. Should we say, a proposed cut? If you have 27 seconds to talk to the American people, how long does it take to say, ``a proposed cut in the rate of increase but a real cut if it is less than the rate of increase plus growth''? Now, keep in mind, this language has been used around Washington, not simply by politicians but by others for a very long time. Most average Americans believe that it amounts to a cut in Medicare if they're being asked--if they're living on $20,000 and they're being asked to pay higher premiums for the same thing they got last year, particularly if the premiums go up more than the rate of inflation. So if there's going to be a change in the language, we ought to all get together and agree on what the language is. The language I am using, sir, is no different from the language the Republicans used when discussing defense all those years and no different than the press used on a regular basis when I arrived here. So maybe we should try to find some new language, but it ill becomes the Speaker to say that when I-- you go back and you could probably find reams and reams and reams of speeches that he's given about defense and other issues, talking about cuts that weren't cuts; they were cuts in the rate of increase. So we'll just--I'm trying to be straight with the American people. And the truth is that the Republicans wanted to reduce the rate of investment in Medicare and Medicaid--we've talked about this in this room many times--to a level that was completely unsustainable when we started this budget process, and that was going to impose significant and unjustifiable burdens on middle class families, working families, the old, the young, families with children with disabilities. And I still believe that what they're trying to do is not advisable, but we are much closer than we used to be. The real answer is, they left these budget negotiations at the start of their primary season. We were very close together. We were closer together than was ever reported in the press. Why don't they want to come back and sit down and work together and come up with a balanced budget? Once we have an agreed-upon balanced budget, nobody will ever be debating this again. Everybody knows we have to have savings in the projected levels of spending in Medicare and Medicaid. The question is, is what they are trying to do good for Medicare and Medicaid? I don't believe it is. And they have--I would remind you that they now have a budget which acknowledges that their earlier levels of spending were too low. They do. They have abandoned their first budget already. Legislative Agenda”