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In this part of his Newsmaker interview with Jim Lehrer, President Clinton says he wants a Democratic Congress that agrees with his views on the budget and wants to protect Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment. Regardless of the election results, though, the President says he wants to work more with Republicans than he did in his first term.
JIM LEHRER: Do you really want a Democratic Congress elected with you in November?
A RealAudio version of this Newsmaker interview is available.
In this Newsmaker interview with Jim Lehrer, President Clinton discusses:
- re-election and his term
- negative politics and Whitewater
- the differences between himself and Bob Dole
- his stake in the Congressional elections
- Dick Morris and the role of consultants
- his move to the center
NewsHour Coverage:
September 20, 1996
Margaret Warner discusses the possibility of the Democrats re-taking the Congress with two key election watchers.
August 28, 1996
At the Democratic National Convention, Kwame Holman talks to incumbent and hopeful members about the Democrats' chances of retaking power on Capitol Hill.
Browse the Online NewsHour's Congressional coverage.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I want--yes, I want a Congress that agrees with me. I don't want to go back through the Congress, the Dole-Gingrich Congress, that, that passed that budget I vetoed that shut the government down. I don't want to go back through that again. I want people who believe that we should balance the budget and protect Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment. I want people who are committed to putting 100,000 police on the street, not still, still trying to stop us from doing something that is clearly bringing the crime rate down. I want people who are committed to making welfare reform work by giving the communities and businesses the tools they need to create jobs that these people we are requiring to go to work.
So yes, there--and I want people who will vote for a targeted tax cut that will help people educate the children and themselves and raise their kids instead of this huge tax cut that can't be paid for and will undermine the economy. That's what I want. I want people who are committed to that new direction I'm trying to take the country in.
JIM LEHRER: But if the Democrats take control of the Congress, the liberal Democrats will retake charge of all the major committee assignments and all of that. Won't you have to, in order to get something done, move back to--in that direction, to the left from where you are now?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: No.
JIM LEHRER: No.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: No. For one thing, again, I would say in ‘93 and ‘94, that Congress, that Democratic Congress, passed the biggest deficit reduction package in history, gave us the only four years where the deficit went down in all four years since the 1840's, reduced the size of government by 250,000, passed the toughest crime bill in history, and passed things like the family leave law, the national service law, and a lot of education reform. I do not believe those are wildly liberal measures.
Secondly, I think the Democratic Party was sobered by what happened in ‘95-‘4 in the election, and I believe that we have a high degree of focus on the future, and I have laid out a road map to the future. I believe that the Congress would work with me to implement the agenda that I'm running on. I know it's convenient for the Republicans to raise the flag of, oh, these people will be so liberal if you let ‘em in and Clinton will be liberal in his second term. The problem with that argument is it doesn't fit with what I've done was as President, doesn't fit with what I did as governor, and doesn't fit with what I'm committing to do in my second term. It just doesn't fit.
What I want are like-minded people. I hope in my second term I'll be able to get more Republicans to work with me. Even now, you know, since Sen. Dole left the Senate, when the Republicans have worked with us, we've gotten a Pesticide Protection Act, we've gotten other legislation through that I consider to be very important. We've got the minimum wage through with small business tax breaks in it, the adoption tax credit in it, we've got the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill passed. So we're moving in the right direction now; we've got this country I think moving that way.
But I think the reason the Republicans have worked with us in the last few months is they were sobered up by what the American people were saying last year. We didn't like it when you shut the government down; we didn't like it when you passed that radical budget; we didn't like it when you tried to wreck the 25 years of bipartisan commitment to the environment--so now we're all working together. I hope after this election, whatever happens in the Congressional elections, we'll be working together more, but would I like to have a Congress committed to the direction that I outlined in my book that I outlined in my convention speech, that I outlined in every speech I give? Of course, I would like to have people who agree with me that we ought to take this direction. But I hope there will be some Republicans I can work with too. I'm always more comfortable doing that.
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