Bill Clinton: “It was. First of all, you should know that as far as the Federal income tax, we're getting pretty close to a flat tax.…”

“It was. First of all, you should know that as far as the Federal income tax, we're getting pretty close to a flat tax. Fifty- seven percent of the taxpayers over the last couple of years have filled out that simple little form and paid the 15 percent with the standard deduction. That's pretty close to a flat tax. But I have never seen a single tax rate that did not either raise taxes on everybody that was making less than $100,000 a year or leave us with a much bigger deficit. So I would do anything I can to further simplify the tax system. I'm trying to let more people file electronically. I'm all for making the forms simpler, the rate structure simpler. But I have never seen a plan--I've studied them carefully because I know how much people want to be free of it--that doesn't either raise taxes on most people or balloon the deficit. And we can't afford to do either one. Mr. Brokaw. Mr. President, we have got a lot more ground to cover tonight. We do have some telephone calls coming as well as questions from the Internet. We'll be back on ``InterNight'' in a moment.”