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President Obama Meets With Bill Clinton; Verdict Reached in Elizabeth Smart Trial; Elizabeth Smart Addresses Media; President Obama and Bill Clinton Address Press; Clinton: 'I Believe' In Bipartisan Agreement On Taxes
Aired December 10, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Now this:
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON (voice-over): Fireworks on Capitol Hill.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: They want more and more and more.
LEMON: As Congress battles over tax cuts, the clock is ticking. Will your paychecks look different in January? The Democrats vs. the president, who breaks first.
A beautiful swimsuit designer found dead inside a posh New York hotel. Her body --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. A lot of news happening right now. Obviously, a little technical difficulty there, but it's live television.
We have some developing stories developing right now in Queens, New York. Look at this unbelievable video. A bus accident, a tractor trailer and an SUV caught in the middle. This is happening on a Queens street. We're told at least six injuries, none life- threatening. The video looks horrible, but, again, it's worse -- it's not as bad as it looks, I should say. We're monitoring that for you.
Also, we're monitoring the White House right now, where President Obama, the sitting president, is meeting with former President Bill Clinton. We know that they have to talk about that tax cut deal. President Clinton, the only person who has been in the same predicament as President Obama and perhaps the president summoned him there for some advice. We're following that for you.
Every year, Los Angeles County, L.A. County, buries the bodies that were never picked up from the coroner's office. This week, they held a service for nearly 2,000 poor, homeless, unknown or forgotten people whose bodies went unclaimed for two years, one mass grave, nearly 1,700 individual bags of cremated ashes.
The coroner's Web site lists more than 5,000 names of bodies still unclaimed.
Next, a Wisconsin officer is accused of allegedly drunk driving, driving drunk. Check out this dash-cam video. He's accused of failing a field sobriety test and is now administrative duty.
His 13-year-old daughter was in the passenger seat. She told police that she had been driving her father and two other men home when she got lost. That's when he took the wheel.
Next up, Bank of America is back in the foreclosure business now. They put a freeze on foreclosures a couple of months ago, after a series of mistakes prompted the bank to step back and take another look at procedures. According to a bank statement, they have got a backlog of 16,000 foreclosure cases.
Next up, the phrase sick day is taking on a whole new meaning in Overland Park, Kansas, today. So many kids and staffers are out sick, the Trailwood Elementary School shut down for the day. According to school officials, 186 of the 336 students and a dozen staffers were out sick yesterday.
The school was forced to close early and cancel all classes for the day. Most of those absent complained of some kind of gastrointestinal symptoms. So, the school building is getting a scrub-down right now.
A Christmas controversy in California. I want you to take a close look at this plywood Santa Claus. He's packing, and that did not go unnoticed. This cowboy Santa and his pistol are now causing a commotion. Listen up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONICA SLIVA, CONCERNED PARENT: I tried to get the image out of my head all day long and I could not, because Santa is made for love, bringing families together, not carrying weapons.
BOBBY VIERRA, TREE FARM MANAGER: I think it's pretty crazy, to tell you the truth. We're just trying to sell trees out here, and we have got a bunch of commotion going on.
SLIVA: It portrays to the kids that it's OK for Santa to be carrying a gun and therefore it's OK for them to be carrying a gun.
VIERRA: We had it up for 20-plus years and not had one complaint about it until now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And now the gun-toting Santa is no more. The owners of the tree farm bowed to pressure and took away his gun or at least they covered it.
Next up, now, imagine running into this during your morning commute. This standoff on Interstate 94 in Milwaukee started at 4:00 this morning and went on for six hours. It finally ended after police used a remote control robot to break out a back window in that SUV. I want you to watch what happens. This is from our affiliate WTMJ.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now they're putting -- they're putting in gas. They're putting in some sort of gas. They have just dumped in some sort of gas. And you see somebody's coming out. It looks like the -- the driver door is opening and someone is coming out. You might be able to see -- yes. Yes.
You see that. I don't know if you can hear this, but they are telling him to -- face down, face down. The dogs are barking.
And now we're seeing a second person. A second person has come out. She appears to be covering -- yes, and -- yes. It looks like she's been cuffed. Both are in handcuffs now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Again, that's from our affiliate WTMJ. The standoff started when police spotted the disabled SUV on the side of the road and realized it was stolen, but the driver refused to get out.
All right, let's talk politics now because we're following several developing stories. It's a big time in Washington. They have got their work cut out with a lame-duck session.
Paul Steinhauser joins us now.
Paul, Senator Bernie Sanders is still going, like the Eveready bunny. What is happening right now on the Senate floor?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You're right, Don, he's still talking. He started at 10:24 this morning, and we have a -- take a listen. He is rallying against that tax cut proposal the president made with congressional Republicans. Take a listen to Bernie Sanders in his own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: In 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income. Let me repeat that. Top 1 percent earned over 23 percent of all income.
That is more than the bottom 50 percent. The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent nearly tripled since the 1970s. Eighty percent -- 80 percent of all new income earned from 1980 to 2005 has gone to the top 1 percent.
Today, in terms of wealth, as opposed to income, the top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Top 1 percent has seen a tripling of the percentage of income they earn since 1970s. Top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP) STEINHAUSER: OK, Don, a little context here.
So, Bernie Sanders independent senator from Vermont, he is a self-described socialist. He caucuses with the Democrats. He was in the House for 16 years before being elected in 2006 to the Senate. And like a lot of other very progressive and liberal Democrats, he is furious with that deal the president has struck.
As you mentioned, he has been going like the Energizer bunny since 10:24 this morning. Is it a filibuster or not? That is a big question. In fact, we have asked the Senate parliamentarian to rule on this.
But, regardless, he's a senator. He's allowed to speak as long as he wants unless he is cut off. And there's been no effort yet to cut Bernie Sanders off.
LEMON: Is this going to mean one way or the other when it comes to this tax cut deal?
STEINHAUSER: Probably not because the plan right now is for the Senate on Monday to start the first votes on the proposal. And I don't think Bernie Sanders is going to talk until Monday. But, hey, stay tuned. Remember, the longest speech ever in the U.S. Senate, Senator Strom Thurmond --
LEMON: Strom Thurmond, yes.
STEINHAUSER: -- South Carolina, yes, 1957. He went for, what, 24-hours plus. So, we're not near there yet, Don. But this is high drama on Capitol Hill.
LEMON: All right, we will be watching it.
Paul Steinhauser, thank you very much.
Eight years ago, Elizabeth Smart was taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night. Today, a jury found her accused kidnapper guilty.
We're waiting for her family to speak out. And we will bring that to you live. It could happen at any second, live pictures now at that courtroom in Utah.
The agency in charge of securing our skies apparently has no idea who owns thousands of planes. And now there are urgent concerns that terrorists could take advantage of this security gap. The details are straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.
The federal agency in charge of every airplane in the sky has a problem. It has to do with keeping track of what's flying around up there. Every plane in America from crop dusters to jet airliners is registered with the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration. At least, it is supposed to be registered.
Well, we learned today that it's not the case everywhere. The numbers are big. And FAA officials are explaining themselves right now.
And we want to go to CNN's homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve.
So, Jeanne, so, some plane owners don't fill out or update some forms. Why are we talking about homeland security here?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, nobody thinks there's an imminent threat here. Let me say that.
But one aviation expert I spoke to said this is as if the IRS lost hundreds of thousands of income tax returns. It's a really big paperwork problem.
Here's what we're dealing with. There are about 350,000 private aircraft in the U.S. And as of now, the FAA says it does not have registration records for about one-third of them. That's 119 aircraft. At least it doesn't have records that it believes to be up- to-date, that it believes to be accurate.
So, why is that a problem? Well, first, because the registrations are used to distribute critical safety information to aircraft owners, and also because inaccurate records increase the possibility that an aircraft or a registration number could be used by drug traffickers or even terrorists without being detected by law enforcement.
Let me give you an example. When an aircraft enters the restricted airspace here over Washington, one of the first things that authorities do is run the tail number to get the owner's name. But if the registration isn't accurate, that doesn't help them at all to determine what sort of threat they might be dealing with -- Don.
LEMON: Who's at fault here, Jeanne, with so many missing or wrong registrations? Is it the owners? Is it the FAA?
MESERVE: Well, it's both. Owners have only had to register their aircraft once at the time of purchase, but they are required by the FAA to report changes that the aircraft is sold or if it's scrapped, and a lot of people just haven't been doing that. And so, as a result, a large number of the FAA's records are out of date.
The FAA has already initiated corrective action. It is now issuing new regulations saying that all civil aircraft have to be reregistered over the next three years, and after that, owners will have to renew their registrations every three years. Comparable to what we do with a car, but they haven't had to do it with airplanes. And owners who don't comply, they're going to have their registrations canceled.
LEMON: Quickly here, Jeanne, bottom line it for us. What the worst case scenario as far as national security, from a national security standpoint?
MESERVE: It's kind of hard to say what the worst case scenario would be. We have people now who take aircraft and they change the tail number on the aircraft and do something illegal, for instance, drug smugglers do that all the time.
Changing these regulations is not going to eliminate that entirely, but now, hopefully, when it happens law enforcement will be able to detect it more quickly and understand what's going on. That's really what it is all about.
LEMON: Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne, appreciate it.
Reality TV-star Kate Gosselin appeared in "Sarah Palin's Alaska," but there are reports it didn't go so smoothly. Up next, find out what the mother of eight, apparently, did not like.
And believe it or not, the Tea Party movement is releasing a children's book. So, what could that be about? Joe Johns has the scoop. The "Political Pop" is next.
We're also waiting on a very serious information. Let's take you now, there we go, to Utah. Elizabeth Smart is expected to come out shortly. Her kidnapper was found guilty this morning in a courtroom there. Also, her father will be with her. We're going to carry that for you live coming up on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, so when we're looking for questions that aren't getting answered, we turn to Joe Johns for the "Political Pop."
Hey, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. How are you doing?
LEMON: I'm doing great. I hope you're doing well, as well.
So we've heard there is a lot of Sarah Palin news right now. I mean, I turned on the television last night and she's on Barbara Walters and "Dancing With the Stars" and she's here , Sarah Palin American. What's the latest with that?
JOHNS: She's everywhere. Look, we probably should get a graphic or something and call it "Palin Watch." She's all over the place, going to Haiti with Franklin Graham, hanging out with the evangelical crowd and actually getting some international political experience, too, Don.
So that's probably the headline today, at least politically.
LEMON: But the trip everyone is talking about right now is a camping trip with Kate Gosselin. Remember the "Kate Plus Eight" now and her kids? Give us an update on that. JOHNS: Well, yes. There's the video, it's just fantastic. This was the reality show for "Sarah Palin's Alaska." We showed some of the video earlier this week, but you know, ratings are ratings. They're both TLC stars. We don't normally, of course, site "US magazine" a source on political stories, but we'll do it now.
LEMON: We're going to do it now.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNS: You're right.
She is, she is a possible future presidential candidate, so what are you going to do? The magazine quotes a source saying Gosselin and Palin had zero chemistry on that trip. They didn't speak off camera. Gosselin said the food and accommodations were terrible. She called it the worst trip she had ever been on.
And as we were saying earlier this week on this program, "Kate Plus Eight" looked pretty miserable in those clips.
LEMON: Well, you know, it's kind of what happens when they say it takes one to know one. If you have similar personalities, most people do not get along, especially if you're of the fiery sort.
JOHNS: That's right, very powerful personalities, too. But all is good in love and war, I guess and we're going to find out how Sarah Palin will do down in Haiti in an environment she's unfamiliar with.
LEMON: OK, so, listen, speaking of -- we were talking about miserable those two. The first lady has a moment, not quite miserable, but she didn't care for it, did she?
JOHNS: No. No, this was last night. This was at the Pageant of Peace, lighting the national Christmas tree. It was really cold out there and she was trying to read with this big, thick book. She had gloves on and she essentially got ahead of herself.
Let's look at the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter -- I skipped a page.
(LAUGHTER)
M. OBAMA: Wait! The children -- skip another page.
(LAUGHTER)
M. OBAMA: OK, here we go.
(LAUGHTER AND CHEERS) M. OBAMA: There we go. We're ready. First lady is taking off her gloves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Fantastic, right? You would think in this day in age they would just give her an iPad.
LEMON: Hey, Joe, we're going to go, Elizabeth Smart speaking now. Sorry to cut you off.
Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
ELIZABETH SMART, KIDNAPPING VICTIM: Not only that, I'm so thrilled to stand before the people of America today and give hope to other victims who have not spoken out about their crime, about what's happened to them.
I hope that not only is this is an example that justice can be served in America, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened, and that we can speak out and we will be heard.
Once again, thank you so much. I am excited to go back to France and complete my mission. Thank you to everyone for everyone's prayers and support.
LEMON: All right, that is Elizabeth Smart speaking there in Utah. OK, Andreas (ph), I have it.
So we're going to go now to the president speaking with the former president. Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- and about the need to grow the economy and to create jobs. And just about every day this week, I've been making an argument as to why the agreement that we've struck to provide billions of dollars in payroll tax cuts that can immediately help rejuvenate the economy, as well as tax cuts for middle class families, unemployment insurance for folks who desperately need it, credits for college, credits for -- child tax credits, as well as a range of business investment credits are so important to make sure we keep this recovery moving.
I just had a terrific meeting with the former president, President Bill Clinton. And we just happen to have this as a topic of conversation. And I thought, given the fact that he presided over as good an economy as we've seen in our lifetimes, that it might be useful for him to share some of his thoughts.
I'm going to let him speak very briefly and then, I've actually got to go over and do some just one more Christmas party. So, he may decide he wants to take some questions, but I want to make sure that you guys heard from him directly. WILLIAM J. CLINTON, 42CD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.
OBAMA: Thank you.
CLINTON: Thank you very much, Mr. President.
First of all, I feel awkward being here and now you're going to leave me all by myself.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: Let me just say a couple of things.
First of all, I still spend about an hour a day trying to study this economy. And I'm not running for anything and I don't have a political agenda, I just try to figure out what to do.
I have reviewed this agreement that the president reached with Republican leaders. And I want to make full disclosure, you know, I make quite a bit of money now, so that the position that the Republicans have urged will personally benefit me. And on its own, I wouldn't support it because I don't think that my tax cut is the most economically efficient way to get the economy going again. But I don't want to be in the dark about the fact that I will receive the continuation of the tax rates.
However, the agreement taken as a whole is, I believe, the best bipartisan agreement we can reach to help the largest number of Americans and to maximize the chances that the economic recovery will accelerate and create more jobs, and to minimize the chances that it will slip back. It's happened in other financial collapses, like that's what Japan faced and something that we have to avoid in America.
Why do I say that? First of all, because, clearly, the extension of unemployment, which gives people a percentage of the income they were previously making, will -- that money will be spent and it will bolster the economy through the next couple of years.
Secondly, the conversion of the Make Work Pay tax credit, which the president passed before, which goes to went to 95 percent of the American people, converted that into $120 billion one-year payroll tax relief act is, according to all the economic analysis, the single most effective tax cut you can do to support economic activity. This will actually create a fair number of jobs. I expect it to lower the unemployment rate and keep us going.
Thirdly, one thing I haven't seen much about in the reports, this agreement will really help America over the long term, because it continues the credits for manufacturing jobs related to energy coming in to America.
And I'll remind you, just in the last two years, there have been 30 high-powered battery factories either opened or presently being built in America taking us from 2 percent to 20 percent of the world's share of that and we're going to probably be at 40 percent by 2014. This is a really important thing bringing manufacturing back to America because it is a huge multiplier to create new jobs.
So, in my opinion, this is a good bill and I hope that my fellow Democrats will support it.
I thank the Republican leaders for agreeing to include things that were important to the president.
There's never a perfect bipartisan bill in the eyes of a partisan, and we all see this differently, but I really believe this will be a significant net plus for the country.
I also think that, in general, a lot of people are giving a sigh of relief that there has finally been some agreement on something.
But don't minimize the impact of the unemployment relief for working families of the payroll tax relief and of the continuation of the incentives to grow jobs, which will trigger more credit coming out of the banks.
Keep in mind, ultimately the long-term answer here is to get the $2 trillion which banks now have in cash reserves uncommitted to loans out there in the economy, again. The $1.8 trillion in corporate treasuries not now being invested out there in the economy again, I think this is a net plus.
And you know how I feel, I think the people that benefit most should pay most. That's always been my position. Not for class warfare reasons, for reasons of fairness in rebuilding the middle class in America. But we have the distribution of authority we have now in the Congress and what we're going to in January, and I think this is a much, much better agreement than would be reached were we to wait until January, and I think we'll have much more positive impact on the economy.
So, for whatever it's worth, that's what I think.
I would like to say one other thing on another subject, just to be recorded on record. They don't need my support on this, because we have some good Republican support, including the first -- excuse me -- the first President Bush.
I think this START agreement is very important to the future of our national security. And it is not a radical agreement. Boris Yeltsin and I agreed in principal on this same reduction and there was no way in the wide world he could get it through the Russian Duma that existed at the time in his second term. So, we didn't proceed because it couldn't be ratified there.
I'm not sure if the Senate would have ratified it then but I think they will now with enough encouragement. But the cooperation that we will get from the Russians and the signal that will be sent to the world on nonproliferation when all these other things are going on which threaten to increase proliferation is very important. One of the things you know is that when people fool with these weapons, they're expensive to build, expensive to maintain and expensive to secure the material that goes into making the weapons. This is something that is profoundly important. This ought to be way beyond party. They worked very hard, they worked out, in my opinion, the details, and I hope it will be ratified.
Yes?
QUESTION: First of all, a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill say this is a bad deal that President Obama could have gotten more. What's your message to them? And then, if I could also just ask -- well, go ahead.
CLINTON: First, my message is, I don't believe that's true, because in January, they will be in the majority. And this would dramatically reduce their unemployment benefits to support the conversion of make work pay tax credits that President Obama enacted into this payroll tax deduction, which I said, I read all these economic studies. Every single unbiased economic study says the best thing you can do, if you're going to take the tax cut path to grow the economy is to give payroll taxes.
I just got back from a trip to Asia with my foundation. Hong Kong, super free market place, had a stimulus. Well, I guess we're not supposed to use that word anymore. You know what they did? They gave almost 10 percent of the people low-income working people, two months free rent and public housing. They gave some money to the seniors. Most important thing they did was payroll tax relief for a year.
This is all the people who studied this belief, it's the number one thing. So, I don't believe they can get a better deal by waiting.
And I think the other thing that nobody is talking about but I'm telling you it's important, I live out there now and I do a lot of this energy work. These tax credits have made us competitive again.
I didn't see a single story that credited Senator Reid's election with the fact that with three weeks before the election, two new plants were announced in Nevada, which has the highest unemployment rate in the state, 1,000 people making LED lights and 1,000 people making wind turbines for that big wind farm in Texas, those companies owned by Chinese interests who said in no uncertain terms, we're here because you decided to compete with us for the future and you gave us tax credit so we can pay higher labor costs because we saved the transportation costs because of these credits.
I don't believe there is a better deal out there.
QUESTION: And as a follow up, you mentioned that the Republican Congress taking office in January. What was your advice to President Obama today about how to deal with the congressmen in the opposition party?
CLINTON: I have a general rule, which is that if whatever he asks me about my advice and whatever I say should become public only if he decides to make it public. He can say whatever he wants. We --
OBAMA: Here's what I'll say. I've been keeping the first lady waiting for about half an hour, so, I'm going to take off.
CLINTON: I don't want to make her mad, please go.
OBAMA: You're in good hands and Gibbs will call last question.
CLINTON: Thank you.
Yes, go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, anything that can be done in your opinion to loosen up the private credit markets that have been so tight. I mean, if people can't get their hands on capital, how can they be the entrepreneurs they want to be? And this is something Republicans have fought all along. What's the next step?
CLINTON: Well, let's -- first of all, let's -- let me just run through the numbers again. We're not talking about high-risk stuff. That's what the financial regulation bill tries to stop and charges the federal regulators with even, if the Wall Street banks get -- we all know they have to be able to have more leverage than the traditional community banks, 10 to one, up in the Dakotas or Arkansas or any place else.
But let's start with the community banks. If they loan the money conservatively, they can loan $10 for every dollar they have in the bank. If they have $2 trillion uncommitted to loans, even though some of them may have a few mortgage issues unresolved, most of that mortgage debt that has been offloaded to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or vanished into cyber sphere with those securitized subprimes -- I mean, the securitized mortgages. I don't like the securities, but they happen.
So, what, I believe is going on, is, first of all, the business community has not come forward as aggressively, the small business community. And this bill did preserve all those small business incentives that were enacted by the Congress from the previous two years. There are like 16 different measures that give incentives for small businesses to take loans and loan guarantees and that kind of thing.
It appears to me that the community banks, at least, are somewhat uncertain about how the financial reform bill, which I supported, applies to them and what the costs of compliance might be. Remember, the two big things that bill did was to require the federal regulators to monitor every month, the big banks that cause the meltdown and require them to set aside more capital, and then it set up an orderly bankruptcy mechanism and banned future bailouts. It said -- that bill actually says if this happens again, the shareholders and the executives have to eat it. But there's a whole lot of other things in credit cards and other matters that deal with it.
I think it is really, really important just to do an aggressive 100 percent information drench. I mean, I would go so far as to do it bank by bank by bank so that everybody knows exactly what they have to do, exactly what it costs and how quickly this can all be resolved.
And then I think it's important to make sure that all these community banks and the people who might borrow from them understand where the small businesses of America are and where the manufacturers are with the various loan guarantees and credits and deductions that are available under these laws. I still think -- you know, we too often assume that when a law passes, people know it passed and they know what's in it and they know how it applies to them. That may not be true in this case because there's been so much activity and so much debate about it that was a debate that occurred in the context of a campaign rather than a context of "let me tell you how this works, come here and we'll figure out how to get you a loan.
So, in my opinion, that's what needs to be done over the next two or three months. The money is there to get this country out of this mess -- $2 trillion in the bank is $20 trillion in loans. Now, there's nothing much guarantee, but there's plenty.
And I also believe the same thing with big companies. You know, we should analyze the situation of every company, at a minimum, has got $1 billion or more in cash, and ask them to be honest with us about what would it take to get you back in the investment business. These companies clearly have a preference for reinvesting in America or they would have put this money somewhere else already. They have got -- you know, it's an amazing thing, $1.8 trillion in corporate treasuries, 6.2 percent of their capitalized values. It's been since 1964 that they had those kind of cash balances relative to their value.
So, those are the things that I think we have to do now. So, I can't answer your question except the bankers I talk to in Arkansas, in small places that I visit around where I live in New York, they all say we know we need to ramp up the activity. We got to get the green light about how we're going to comply with these laws and then we'll go.
And you might be able to actually use your program to do it. You might be able to bring some community bankers on and bring some regulars down and work through this stuff for people. I just think they don't know yet.
Yes?
QUESTION: Some of your fellow Democrats are saying that the president just didn't go in and fight hard enough for his core principles. That he caved in. Politically, some say that he should be a one-term president. Has he damaged not only his own political path, but has he let the party down?
CLINTON: I don't believe so. I think, you know, I just respectfully disagree about that. I think that a lot of -- look, a lot of them are hurting now and I get it. And, you know, I did 133 events for him. I believe the Congress in the last two years did a far better job than the American people thought they did. At least the American people have voted in the midterms. And I went to extraordinary efforts to try to explain what I thought had been done in the ways that I thought were most favorable to them. But we had an election. The results are what they are. The numbers will only get worse in January in terms of negotiating.
And the president, if -- look, if we had 5 percent growth and unemployment was dropping like a rock, maybe you could have a so- called standoff and could say, it will be you, not me. The voters will hold responsible for raising taxes on middle class people if they all go down, you know, next year.
That is not the circumstance we face. The United States has suffered a severe financial collapse. These things take longer to get over than normal recessions. We must first make sure we keep getting over it.
We don't want to slip back down as Japan did, and in order to make it happen over the long run. The question I just asked was so good is we have to go beyond direction investments, whether they're stimulus projects or tax cuts to private growth, but to get there, we have to achieve a high level of growth that triggers the confidence.
So, I personally believe this is a good deal and the best he could have gotten under the circumstances. I just disagree. I understand why people have a right to disagree with me, but I disagree.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Mr. President, you made a number of very effective calls for the health care plan last year. Have you been asked to make any calls to Democratic members on the tax deal? And secondly, there a lot of comparisons being made between the '94 election and the 2010 election. Do you think those are analogous? Are they similar situations?
CLINTON: It's like all these things, all of you will be under enormous pressure to develop the storyline and there are some parallels and some that are different. And, you know, I'm -- I'll let you do that. I'm out of politics now except to say that I care about my country and I want to get this economy going again, and I believe that it is necessary for these parties to work together.
And I think, you know, for example, the storyline is how well we work with the Republicans and all that. But, you know, we played political kabuki for a year, had two government shutdowns. We can't afford that now.
The only reason we could do that is that investments were already coming down at a time when interest rates were the problem and the economy was coming out. People just didn't feel it yet in '94. We can't afford that. We have got to pull together and both sides are going to eat some things they don't like because we cannot afford to have the kind of impasse that we had last time over a long period of time. We -- we don't want to slip back in to a recession. We got to keep this thing going and accelerate its pace. I think this is the best available option.
QUESTION: Mr. President --
(CROSSTALK)
CLINTON: Oh, I'm sorry, George, I have not. But in fairness, as soon as the election was over, I took my foundation trip to Asia and then I came back. I just got back from the West Coast doing my annual trip out there with people who support the work I do and my foundation. I flew overnight to get here today and I have to leave again tonight.
If I were asked to, I would be happy to talk to anyone. But I have not been asked. But in fairness, the president didn't have a chance to. He asked me to come down today because he knew I was going to -- Hillary and I appearing before at the Brookings' Saban Forum on the Middle East tonight.
Yes, Mark?
QUESTION: Mr. President, I get the feeling that you're happier to be here commenting and giving advice to governing.
CLINTON: Oh, I had quite a good time governing.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: I am happy to be here, I suppose when the bullets that are fired are unlikely to hit me, unless they're just ricocheting. No, I'm glad to be here because I -- I think the president made a good decision, and because I want my country to do well.
In -- after the '94 election, I said that American people in their infinite wisdom have put us both in the same boat. So, we're going to either row or sink. And I want us to row.
QUESTION: Can you give us a Haiti update?
CLINTON: What?
QUESTION: Can you give us a Haiti update? I know you were there.
CLINTON: Yes. I had a long talk with the prime minister today and he, first of all, has done, I think, a remarkable job of being a loyal prime minister, but not being involved in the political imbroglio that's going on except to try to keep calm.
There was a decision made by the electoral council to review the vote in its entirety and ask some outside observers to come in who were not only credible, but knowledgeable. And they will announce exactly how they propose to do that. Today was a pretty calm day, and they expect the weekend to be pretty calm.
We are going to have our commission meeting next week. We may move it to the Dominican Republic, but I think the best thing that we can do for the people of Haiti is to prove that Haitians on the commission and the donors are still committed to the long-term reconstruction process, whoever gets elected president.
The best thing they can do is -- everyone understands they had to carry out this election under enormously difficult circumstances. Even getting the I.D. cards to everybody, as you know, proved difficult because they were in those tented areas.
But what I can say is it was calmer today. It appears they are going to try to have a recount procedure, which they hope will require more support from across the political spectrum. And meanwhile, we want the commission to keep working.
The World Bank just released about $70 billion of the $90 billion in projects we approved four months ago, and so that will go in, and we'll be hiring more people immediately on those projects. And we're going to approve a lot more projects on the 14th. And that's my focus now.
Yes?
QUESTION: Mr. President, I have to ask, do you think your appearance here today will help sway votes where they're needed most right now among House Democrats? And the reason I ask you that is because a lot of them are sort of antsy, and I know you never used the term back in your first term, but they are antsy about the president of triangulation. They are still smarting over that, and your appearance here today might not necessarily push them in the direction that they want to be pushed.
CLINTON: That's right. It might not. But I would like to -- you know, I told President Obama and I'll tell you, you ought to go back and read a lecture that Franklin Roosevelt gave in 1926, before he was a vice presidential nominee, before he came down with polio, to his old alma mater, (INAUDIBLE), and when she discussed the dilemma of the progressive movement in American politics.
You know, I have an enormous amount of respect for the Democrats in the House, and I've already told you, I regret that so many of them lost. I think some of our best people lost. And I get where they're coming from.
I can only tell you that my economic analysis is that, given all the alternatives that I can imagine actually becoming law, this is the best economic result for America. And I think it is enormous relief for America to think that both parties might vote for something, anything that they could both agree on. And there is no way you can have a compromise without having something in the bill that you don't like.
So, I don't know if I could influence anybody. Heck, I couldn't -- you know, I'd go some places and the people I campaigned for won. Some places, the people I campaigned for lost.
I don't know. All I can tell you is what I think. QUESTION: Considering your credibility on the deficit, what do you think about concerns about the short-term deficit and the long- term deficit and where --
CLINTON: I'm happy to address that, because I don't think I did a good enough job in this election season, and obviously -- I'm not sure we did.
The difference between now and when I became president, when we immediately went after the deficit, is quite simple. When I became president, it was after 12 years in which the accumulative debt of the country had risen from $1 trillion to $4 trillion. It was the first period in American history when we had ever run structural deficits of any size, and so we were having to pay too much for money.
It's costing us a lot to borrow money in the public sector, taking -- I think it was 14 cents of every dollar on the debt at the time. And it was crowding out the opportunity of the private sector to borrow money and raising their costs. And that sparked the recession that we had in the early '90s.
What happened this time was totally different. This time, there was a collapse of a financial system which took interest rates to zero.
Now, I know there is a lot of alarm now. People say, oh, the interest rates went up on bond and debt in the last couple days, and they say, oh, is it because of the increase in the agreement, increasing the deficit in the short term, is it because of the economy growing?
That doesn't bother me. We have to get out of deflation. The biggest problem we have now is deflation.
So, look, I'm a Depression-era kid. I don't like deficits ever, really.
You know, we had four surpluses when I was president. That's what I like. I like balanced budgets and surpluses when you have growth. But if I were in office now, I would have done what the president has done.
You have to -- you have to first put the brakes on a contracting economy, and then you have to somehow hold it together until growth resumes. When growth resumes, you have to have interest rates higher than zero.
So, you should actually -- now, you know, if they get too high, you'll be alarmed. But you should be encouraged that interest rates are beginning to creep up again. It's a sign of a healthy economy. And the idea is that there would be competition for money.
I do believe that we'll have to take aggressive and disciplined action to eliminate the structural deficit, again. And I think it was a mistake to go back to structural deficits. I think if America were out of debt on a normal basis, and we didn't have to borrow money from our major trading partners, we would have more economic freedom and economic security. So, I want to see what comes out of this, but I expect to support some very vigorous actions to eliminate the deficit and get us back to balance.
Yes, one more. I've got to get out of here. Go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
Beyond this pending tax deal, there are enormous issues of importance that are unfinished, from energy, to education, the deficit, and this is still a very divided country. Do you think the American people want a president to compromise with the opposing party? And is that a message that you think Democrats are going to have to accept?
CLINTON: Yes, but I also believe that it's a message Republicans are going to have to accept. Keep in mind, to me, the really interesting thing was that a lot of the hard-core conservatives think the Republicans gave too much.
Read Charles Krauthammer's column in The Post. He's a brilliant man, and he pointed out that they got the divisive tax cuts, but most of them were targeted to middle class working people -- that's what the payroll tax cut is -- that the unemployment benefits were extended, which some of them did not want to do, and that the American people by 2-1 support them both.
So, there are some conservatives who don't believe in the economic theory I just advanced to you, who believe that the president and Democrats got more out of this than the Republicans did. So, I think that's healthy, too, because everybody's got to give a little.
Yes, I think, I think the one thing that always happen when you have divided government is that people no longer see principled compromise as weakness. This system was set up to promote principled compromise. It is an ethical thing to do. And in a democracy where no one is a dictator, we would all be at each other's throats all the time, and we would be in a state of constant paralysis if, once power is divided, there is no compromise.
QUESTION: What is the political fight worth having? What would you tell Democrats the political fight worth having is right now?
CLINTON: Well, I think it's worth fighting against the repeal of the health care law. I would be in favor -- and I can give you four or five things off the top of my head that I think should be done to improve it.
I think it's worth a ferocious fight to avoid repeal of the student loan reform, which I believe is the best chance we've got to take America back to number one from number nine, and a percentage of adults in the world with four-year degrees.
I think it's worth fighting repeal of the financial reform and the assurance it gives us that we won't have another meltdown. And, if we do, there won't be another bailout.
I think there are a lot of fights worth having, and I presume the Republicans want to fight those, too, since they ran on that. And they'll be able to have these differences.
But this holds the promise that after the fights are over, we'll be able to find principled compromises on those areas, as well. And to me, that's worth doing.
But, first, the economy first. We can't go back into a recession. We have to keep crawling out of this mess we're in, and this is a good first step both on the substantive merits and on the psychological relief it gives to the American people, in general, and the small business people and community bankers and others who can start doing things that will help get better, in particular.
Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.
LEMON: All right. There was a very interesting moment that just happened. And the former president going into the briefing room with the current president and speaking out, really helping him with this tax cut deal with Republicans.
Former President Bill Clinton saying, "This is the best deal out there. If I were in office right now, I would have done what the president did," he said.
He got a little wonky there talking about some other things, but it was just strange, to say the least. It felt like we were going back to the '90s. Almost a flashback.
I want to bring in now Ed Henry. He is our White House correspondent.
Ed, you were listening to that. He spoke for a good long time. It looks like he still wants to be in the game. But saying three or four times, maybe more, that this is the best deal out there, and we have to compromise. He says the Congress has to compromise.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don, you're right. I think President Obama made one mistake at the top of this when he said President Clinton is going to speak briefly. That clearly didn't happen. He went on for a half hour or so, because you're right, he loves this. That's what he's all about.
And getting back in that briefing room, clearly he enjoyed that. He likes the give and take. And there's a little bit of political risk here for President Obama, frankly, to have a former president of his stature to come in, in what is a pretty difficult time for President Obama, coming out of what he called a shellacking in the midterm election. Now he's struggling getting his own Democrats on board with the tax cut deal.
LEMON: But Ed -- HENRY: It might look like he needs to bring in the big guns because he's not getting it done himself.
On the other hand, when you talk to senior White House officials even before this meeting -- about a two-hour meeting took place this afternoon in the Oval Office -- they say, look, this shows President Obama is bigger, he's willing to bring in other voices. And what better advocate to get this tax cut deal through than Bill Clinton?
LEMON: I wonder if it would compromise the president's authority in a sense, because he stepped away and said, I've got to go. And then he let Bill Clinton take charge there.
Hold that thought. We're going to get a quick break in.
HENRY: I know that there is a White House staff holiday party going on --
LEMON: Hang on, Ed. Hang on. We're going to get a quick break. And I have got to pay the bills here and we're going to come back.
"The Best Political Team" standing by on the other side of this break to talk about the former president holding a press briefing today.
Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Back now with CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry.
So, the president entered the room with the former president, but didn't leave with him. He left early. Why?
HENRY: Yes. Well, because there's a staff holiday party going on right now over in the residence area, and first lady Michelle Obama was already there. That's why he was referring to it -- as well as a lot of White House staffers who get to bring relatives, friends, whatever, to get a picture with the president and first lady.
So, the president was just pointing out -- President Obama, the current president -- that he didn't want to be rude to the first lady and White House staff family who were waiting for him. And I just wanted to make that point. So that's why he left Bill Clinton there. It was not -- it's a little awkward to see one leaving the other in there, though, because Bill Clinton ran with it. I mean, he got the podium and he said, it's my microphone now, basically, I guess.
LEMON: I think it's fairly obvious and would be right to say that this was a historic moment, watching a former president be introduced by a current president, one who they didn't really get along on the campaign trail.
Thank you very much for that, Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent. That is it for me. Thanks for watching. My colleague over at "THE SITUATION ROOM" is going to pick this up right now.
Wolf, take it away.
