[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[June 23, 1993]
[Pages 922-923]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Economic Program and an Exchange With Reporters
June 23, 1993

    The President. I just want to make a couple of remarks about where 
we are in the Congress today. We're at the eleventh hour of this budget 
debate. It's been going on for months now. And the Republican Senators 
say finally they're going to offer a plan. The plan clearly, if you look 
at all the options, will be to protect the privileged and to punish the 
middle class and the most vulnerable.
    The Senate Finance Committee bill which was reported out last week 
now has 78.5 percent of the burden of new taxes falling on people with 
incomes above $200,000. All the analysts say that my plan is an honest 
budget plan, that it will reduce the deficit at least as much, if not 
more, than we're saying, and it is fair. And we're working hard to pass 
it in the Senate.
    But we ought to have some bipartisan support. We ought to have some 
Republican support for this. And the fact that the Republican Senators 
are thinking about coming out with a plan now, calling it a no-tax plan, 
which is really nothing but a shield to keep the wealthiest Americans 
from paying their fair share, even though their taxes went down for the 
last 12 years while the deficit exploded, is a real disservice to this 
country.

Economic Program

    Q. Why, Mr. President, do you think the Republicans want to protect 
the privileged?
    The President. Well, that's what they did. That's what their 12-year 
economic policy was all about. That's what trickle-down economics was 
based on, that if you just lower taxes on the wealthy enough and when 
you have to increase them, increase them on the middle class, and that 
upper income people, when they get all the economic gains, will then 
reinvest it, create jobs, and raise incomes. It didn't work. It has 
never worked in the history of the country.

[[Page 923]]

    I want to emphasize, I do not want to punish success. This is not 
what this is about. I want to reward success. My plan has real 
incentives for small business, for new business, for new technology. I 
want to reward success, and I want people to make a lot of money. But we 
have to have a fair tax system, and this plan should require the vast 
majority of the new revenues to come from people with incomes above 
$200,000 because they're the ones that got the benefits of the 1980's.
    Q. Do you think their plan will get anywhere? And do you have any 
Republican support?
    The President. No--well, I mean, look at what happened in the House 
when they had the same sort of thing. The Republican plan in the House 
lost more Republican votes than the Democratic plan lost Democratic 
votes.
    Q. Are you looking for some kind of middle ground compromise where 
you might be able to bring on some Republicans?
    The President. Well, I'm going to try to pass--what I think we have 
to do is to get this bill into conference, come out with a bill that 
meets our objectives: $500 billion in deficit reduction; more cuts than 
tax increases; progressive tax increases; and then real incentives to 
reward work, to reward families, to reward investments in this economy. 
That's what we're trying to do. And I think we're getting close.

Interest Rates

    Q. Are you willing to, sir, accept a mild increase in interest 
rates?
    The President. For what?
    Q. From the Fed.
    The President. Well, whatever they do, I think, long-term interest 
rates will stay down. That's the key to the economy. But there's no 
inflation in this economy now that we can see.
    Q. So they should not raise rates?
    The President. That's a decision they have to make.

Note: The President spoke at 12:44 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House.