Bill Clinton: “I rise because I cannot remain silent in the face of both a budget process and a budget product that I think will be so…”

“I rise because I cannot remain silent in the face of both a budget process and a budget product that I think will be so harmful to our country. I really wish I did not have to rise today. I wish, given the opportunities that lie before us as a nation, what we were debating was the kind of balanced approach to the budget that I could wholeheartedly support--a balanced approach that included an affordable, reasonable tax cut, that fairly went to all Americans, giving every one of our families a Mother's Day present, as Senator Byrd so wonderfully reminded us is around the corner. I wish this budget were filled with the kind of careful analysis about the investments that we need to make our country rich and smarter and stronger in the years ahead. And I wish this budget continued to pay down the debt in the way that we had been doing. In the last 3 years, we paid off more than $600 billion of our debt. We took it off the backs of all these schoolchildren who are watching us. We said: We are not going to pass on the debts of your parents.”