Middle Class Tax Cut
"I want to make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my view, is central to any attempt we're going to make to have a short-term economic strategy and a long-term fairness strategy, which is part of getting this country going again." -- William J. Clinton ABC News, Primary Debate, Manchester, NH 1/19/92
Americans Pay More under Clinton
Sen. Pete Domencini(R)-New Mexico: "We're going to ask the American people to pay more so we can spend more, is that fair to say?" -- Dr. Alice Rivlin, Clinton appointee to the OMB: "That's one way to look at it, yes, Senator."
Lobbyists
"The period we're in is a lobbyist's dream come true" -- Joan Claybrook, head of the advocacy group Public Citizen, describing the atmosphere of the Clinton Administration.
Shades of Nixon!
"[Clinton's] Administration is easily the most reckless in interfering with the integrity of Federal investigative agencies since that of Richard Nixon." -- New York Times editorial, "White House Ethics Meltdown", 3/4/94
Ethics, Clinton Style
"For a team that Clinton promised would adhere to a "higher ethical standard" his administration has presided over an extraordinary amount of corruption and an unprecedented number of high-level officials forced to resign in disgrace." -- The Times (of London), Feb 12, 1995.
Health Care
"I can't worry about every under capatilized business" -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, testifing before congress on the effects of Nationalized Health Care.
The Good Old Days?
"I never thought I'd miss Nancy Reagan. There can't be a rating [on the Clinton drug policy] when there hasn't been a performance." -- Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), April 24, 1993
National Debt, Take One
"The money we cut from the military would have been sufficient to lower unemplyment, to increase growth, to give us what we need in education and training, were it not for the enormous inflation in health-care cost and the size of the deficit I confronted when I took office." -- President William Clinton, Rolling Stone interview 11/93
National Debt, Take Two
"[S]enior Administration officials, including Bentsen and Panetta, concede that the professed shock at higher deficit estimates issued after the election was largely feigned. Moreover, the new Clinton team issued initial budget projections soon after taking office that put absolutely the worst face possible on the deficit outlook, manipulating data to reinforce the impression that Bush had left Clinton with a fiscal nightmare." -- Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1994, p. D1.
Rights of ordinary Americans
"[the United States] can't be so fixed on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans..." -- President William Clinton, March 1, 1993 during a press conference in Piscataway, NJ source: Boston Globe, 3/2/93, page 3
Right to have a firearm
"...our absolute obligation under the Constitution to give people the right to have a firearm..." -- President William Clinton, March 1, 1993 during a press conference in Piscataway, NJ
What's Wrong with America
"You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say." -- President William Clinton 5/29/93
Economics
"It was hard to see, but a week ago Friday the Clinton administration, while driving a large black sedan at high speed across the 14th street bridge, opened the door and shoved out their revised downward GDP estimate for this year, to 2.5% from 3.1%." - Wall Street Journal Monday July 12 1993 (p A12)
Warrants? We don't need no stinkin' Warrants!
"[President Clinton] said he directed advisers to craft a policy allowing police to search public housing for weapons in the wake of a federal court order barring Chicago officials from conducting sweeps without search warrants." - Associated Press: (Chicago Tribune, 4/10/94 Section 1 page 10)
Janous
"Stephanopoulos knew that it was a mistake to assume that any one moment with Clinton, any one conversation, day, or even week reflected Clinton's true feelings or unchanging fundamental attitude about something." -- Bob Woodward, in his book "The Agenda"
Existentialism
"The President's essential character flaw isn't dishonesty so much as a-honesty. It isn't that Clinton means to say things that are not true, or that he cannot make true, but that everything is true for him when he says it, because he says it. Clinton means what he says when he says it, but tomorrow he will mean what he says when he says the opposite. He is the existential President, living with absolute sincerety in the passing moment." -- Michael Kelly, "The President's Past," New York Times Magazine, July 31, 1994
Clinton on Terrorism
"It would be the equivalent of having the prime minister of England invite the Oklahoma City bombers to 10 Downing Street, to congradulate them on a job well done." -- Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher responding to President Clinton's red-carpet welcome for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams; Newsweek 5/15/95 page 19