My Life, by Bill Clinton: on Budget & Economy
Dick Gephardt:
Opposed bipartisan 1998 balanced budget
Economic growth in the first quarter of 1997 was reported to be 5.6%, which pushed the estimated deficit down to $75 billion, about a quarter of what it was when I took office. On May 2, I announced that, at long last, I had reached a balanced
budget agreement with Speaker Gingrich and Senator Lott and the congressional negotiations for both parties. Senator Tom Daschle also announced his support for the agreement. Dick Gephardt did not, but I was hoping he would come around once he had a
chance to review it.I met the Republicans halfway on the amount of Medicare savings. The Republicans accepted a smaller tax cut, the child health insurance program, and the big education increase. We had produced the first balanced budget since
1969, and a good one to boot. Senator Lott and Speaker Gingrich had worked with us in good faith, and Erskine Bowles, with his negotiating skills and common sense, had kept things going at critical moments.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.754-755
Jun 21, 2004
Erskine Bowles:
Negotiated 1998 budget: first one balanced since 1969
Economic growth in the first quarter of 1997 was reported to be 5.6%, which pushed the estimated deficit down to $75 billion, about a quarter of what it was when I took office. On May 2, I announced that, at long last, I had reached a balanced
budget agreement with Speaker Gingrich and Senator Lott and the congressional negotiations for both parties. Senator Tom Daschle also announced his support for the agreement. Dick Gephardt did not, but I was hoping he would come around once he had a
chance to review it.I met the Republicans halfway on the amount of Medicare savings. The Republicans accepted a smaller tax cut, the child health insurance program, and the big education increase. We had produced the first balanced budget since
1969, and a good one to boot. Senator Lott and Speaker Gingrich had worked with us in good faith, and Erskine Bowles, with his negotiating skills and common sense, had kept things going at critical moments.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.754-755
Jun 21, 2004
George Bush Sr.:
Increased national debt from $3T in 1988 to $4T in 1992
The problem with applying the traditional analysis to current conditions was that under Reagan and Bush, we had built a large structural deficit that persisted in good times and bad. When President Reagan took office, the national debt was $1 trillion.
It tripled during his eight years, thanks to the big tax cuts in 1981 and increases in spending. Under President Bush, the debt continued to increase again, by one-third, in just four years. Now it totaled $4 trillion. Annual interest payments on the deb
were the third-largest item in the federal budget after defense and Social Security.The deficit was the inevitable result of so-called supply-side economics, the theory that the more you cut taxes, the more the economy will grow, with the growth
producing more tax revenue at lower tax rates than previously had been collected at higher ones. Of course it didn't work, and the deficits exploded throughout the recovery of the 1980s.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.458-459
Jun 21, 2004
Newt Gingrich:
Negotiated 1998 budget: first one balanced since 1969
Economic growth in the first quarter of 1997 was reported to be 5.6%, which pushed the estimated deficit down to $75 billion, about a quarter of what it was when I took office. On May 2, I announced that, at long last, I had reached a balanced
budget agreement with Speaker Gingrich and Senator Lott and the congressional negotiations for both parties. Senator Tom Daschle also announced his support for the agreement. Dick Gephardt did not, but I was hoping he would come around once he had a
chance to review it.I met the Republicans halfway on the amount of Medicare savings. The Republicans accepted a smaller tax cut, the child health insurance program, and the big education increase. We had produced the first balanced budget since
1969, and a good one to boot. Senator Lott and Speaker Gingrich had worked with us in good faith, and Erskine Bowles, with his negotiating skills and common sense, had kept things going at critical moments.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.754-755
Jun 21, 2004
Robert Reich:
Differed with Clinton; less emphasis on deficit reduction
In 1997, I appointed Alexis Herman to succeed Bob Reich at the Labor Department. Bob Reich had done a good job at the Department of Labor and as a member of the economic team, but it was becoming difficult for him; he disagreed with my economic
and budget policies, believing I had put too much emphasis on deficit reduction and invested too little in education, training, and new technologies. Bob also wanted to go home to Massachusetts to his wife, Clare, and their sons.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.738
Jun 21, 2004
Ronald Reagan:
Increased national debt from $1T in 1980 to $3T in 1988
The problem with applying the traditional analysis to current conditions was that under Reagan and Bush, we had built a large structural deficit that persisted in good times and bad. When President Reagan took office, the national debt was $1 trillion.
It tripled during his eight years, thanks to the big tax cuts in 1981 and increases in spending. Under President Bush, the debt continued to increase again, by one-third, in just four years. Now it totaled $4 trillion. Annual interest payments on the deb
were the third-largest item in the federal budget after defense and Social Security.The deficit was the inevitable result of so-called supply-side economics, the theory that the more you cut taxes, the more the economy will grow, with the growth
producing more tax revenue at lower tax rates than previously had been collected at higher ones. Of course it didn't work, and the deficits exploded throughout the recovery of the 1980s.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.458-459
Jun 21, 2004
Tom Daschle:
Supported 1998 budget: first one balanced since 1969
Economic growth in the first quarter of 1997 was reported to be 5.6%, which pushed the estimated deficit down to $75 billion, about a quarter of what it was when I took office. On May 2, I announced that, at long last, I had reached a balanced
budget agreement with Speaker Gingrich and Senator Lott and the congressional negotiations for both parties. Senator Tom Daschle also announced his support for the agreement. Dick Gephardt did not, but I was hoping he would come around once he had a
chance to review it.I met the Republicans halfway on the amount of Medicare savings. The Republicans accepted a smaller tax cut, the child health insurance program, and the big education increase. We had produced the first balanced budget since
1969, and a good one to boot. Senator Lott and Speaker Gingrich had worked with us in good faith, and Erskine Bowles, with his negotiating skills and common sense, had kept things going at critical moments.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.754-755
Jun 21, 2004
Trent Lott:
Negotiated 1998 budget: first one balanced since 1969
Economic growth in the first quarter of 1997 was reported to be 5.6%, which pushed the estimated deficit down to $75 billion, about a quarter of what it was when I took office. On May 2, I announced that, at long last, I had reached a balanced
budget agreement with Speaker Gingrich and Senator Lott and the congressional negotiations for both parties. Senator Tom Daschle also announced his support for the agreement. Dick Gephardt did not, but I was hoping he would come around once he had a
chance to review it.I met the Republicans halfway on the amount of Medicare savings. The Republicans accepted a smaller tax cut, the child health insurance program, and the big education increase. We had produced the first balanced budget since
1969, and a good one to boot. Senator Lott and Speaker Gingrich had worked with us in good faith, and Erskine Bowles, with his negotiating skills and common sense, had kept things going at critical moments.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.754-755
Jun 21, 2004
Zell Miller:
1992: We need Dems because not everyone is born rich
Governor Zell Miller brought the audience to tears with this story at the 1992 Convention: "My father died when I was two weeks old. But with my mother's faith in God--and Mr. Roosevelt's voice on the radio--we kept going. After my father's death, my
mother with her own hands cleared a small piece of rugged land and completed a house from rocks she'd lifted from the creek and the cement she mixed--cement that today still bears her handprints. Her son bears her handprints, too. She pressed her pride
and her hopes and her dreams deep into my soul. So, you see, I know what Dan Quayle means when he says it's best for children to have two parents. You bet it is. And it would be good if they could all have trust funds, too. We can't all be born rich,
handsome, and lucky. And that's why we have a Democratic Party."When Zell Miller was elected to the Senate in 2000, Georgia had become more conservative and so had he. But I will always remember what he did for me, the Democrats, and America in 1992.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.416
Jun 21, 2004
Page last updated: Feb 19, 2019