Transcript: Bill Clinton's remarks at the DNC

(APPLAUSE)

Now, wait a minute. Let's look...

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

CLINTON: Let's look at the other big charge the Republicans made. It's a real doozy.

(LAUGHTER)

They actually have charged and run ads saying that President Obama wants to weaken the work requirements in the welfare reform bill I signed that moved millions of people from welfare to work. Wait. You need to know, here's what happened.

(LAUGHTER)

Nobody ever tells you what really happened. Here's what happened. When some Republican governors asked if they could have waivers to try new ways to put people on welfare back to work, the Obama administration listened, because we all know it's hard for even people with good work histories to get jobs today, so moving folks from welfare to work is a real challenge. And the administration agreed to give waivers to those governors and others only if they had a credible plan to increase employment by 20 percent and they could keep the waivers only if they did increase employment.

Now, did -- did I make myself clear? The requirement was for more work, not less.

(APPLAUSE)

So this is personal to me. We moved millions of people off welfare. It was one of the reasons that, in the eight years I was president, we had 100 times as many people move out of poverty into the middle class than happened under the previous 12 years, 100 times as many. It's a big deal.

(APPLAUSE)

But I am telling you, the claim that President Obama weakened welfare reform's work requirement is just not true. But they keep on running ads claiming it.

You want to know why? Their campaign pollster said, "We are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Now, finally I can say: That is true.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

I -- I -- I couldn't have said it better myself.

(LAUGHTER)

And I hope you and every American within the sound of my voice remembers it every time they see one of those ads, and it turns into an ad to re-elect Barack Obama and keep the fundamental principles of personal empowerment and moving everybody who can get a job into work as soon as we can.

(APPLAUSE)

Now let's talk about the debt. Today, interest rates are low, lower than the rate of inflation. People are practically paying us to borrow money, to hold their money for them. But it will become a big problem when the economy grows and interest rates start to rise. We've got to deal with this big long-term debt problem or it will deal with us. It'll gobble up a bigger and bigger percentage of the federal budget we'd rather spend on education and health care and science and technology. It -- we've got to deal with it.

Now, what has the president done? He has offered a reasonable plan of $4 trillion in debt reduction over a decade, with $2.5 trillion coming from -- for every $2.5 trillion in spending cuts, he raises a dollar in new revenues, 2.5 to 1. And he has tight controls on future spending. That's the kind of balanced approach proposed by the Simpson-Bowles commission, a bipartisan commission. Now, I think this plan is way better than Governor Romney's plan. First, the Romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility: The numbers just don't add up.

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, consider this. What would you do if you had this problem? Somebody says, "Oh, we've got a big debt problem. We've got to reduce the debt." So what's the first thing he says we're going to do? "Well, to reduce the debt, we're going to have another $5 trillion in tax cuts, heavily weighted to upper-income people. So we'll make the debt hole bigger before we start to get out of it."

Now, when you say, "What are you going to do about this $5 trillion you just added on?" They say, "Oh, we'll make it up by eliminating loopholes in the tax code." So then you ask, "Well, which loopholes? And how much?" You know what they say? "See me about that after the election."

(LAUGHTER)

I'm not making it up. That's their position. "See me about that after the election."

Now, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.

(APPLAUSE)

If -- arithmetic.

(APPLAUSE)

If they stay with this $5 trillion tax cut plan in a debt reduction plan, the arithmetic tells us, no matter what they say, one of three things is about to happen. One, assuming they try to do what they say they'll do -- get rid of -- cover it by deductions, cutting those deductions -- one, they'll have to eliminate so many deductions, like the ones for home mortgages and charitable giving, that middle- class families will see their tax bills go up an average of $2,000, while anybody who makes $3 million or more will see their tax bill go down $250,000.

(BOOING)

Or, two, they'll have to cut so much spending that they'll obliterate the budget for the national parks, for ensuring clean air, clean water, safe food, safe air travel. They'll cut way back on Pell grants, college loans, early childhood education, child nutrition programs, all the programs that help to empower middle-class families and help poor kids. Oh, they'll cut back on investments in roads and bridges and science and technology and biomedical research. That's what they'll do. They'll hurt the middle class and the poor and put the future on hold to give tax cuts to upper-income people who've been getting it all along.

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6/7

[sloan5]

Great speech and great endoresement for Pres Obama. The Republicans main job is not for the people but to give Pres Obama a one term President. So guys- this is the GOPs main goal.How can they lead the United States with a goal like this?

Bill Clinton said it all! Another 4 years for Pres Obama!

[TimeToEvolve]

Bill made it quite clear there is absolutely no reason to vote for any Republicon, either this election or ever again.

[tryingtodogoodwork]

Entirely, absolutely, completely agree with you, Evolve.

[reelsurfer]

Our users made a reel of the best clips from Clinton's speech, enjoy: http://reelsurfer.com/watch/clip/entry_id/6498

[TimeToEvolve]

Bill Clinton gave more truth in his first sentence than what was said at the entire RepubliCON CONvention.

[Phaerisee]

I do like Romney's business experience, but his Gordon Gecko-esque tenure at Bain Capital concerns me. I also have a problem with him calling himself pro-life. In fact, Romneycare provided for taxpayer funded abortifacients (Pharmaceuticals that cause spontaneous abortion) How many evangelicals and catholics know this? He also is continually calling himself a christian to gain votes, when most of us learned in Sunday school that this is not the case.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGFAph3lWqw

[TimeToEvolve]

Robbed Me's business experience is closing factories, off-shoring good jobs and opening race-to-the-bottom businesses like Staples and Outback Steakhouse. You LIKE that experience? Wow!

[BoJet]

I've just realised, Ex President Clinton is a preacher not a politician.

[alphabet77-2009]

Republicans praise Clinton in their ads now, but they seem to have forgotten that both houses of the GOP dominated Congress voted against Clinton's budget, that's right, the same one that generated a surplus and an economic boom that they speak so nostalgically about.

[factchecker9]

To all you fact checkers: would be very helpful if you check the facts, report to us your findings and educate us on the truth...surprise, surprise, pretty close to the truth ah?

[nycalien]

Where's your fact checking on RNC Ryan and Mitt talk? GOPers are scared after Bill's speech. Wet dream is over for GOPers. Did you see the jobs report today?

[sjc_1]

Bill Clinton is the Great Communicator, not Reagan. He puts things simply and in a way people can understand. I would say President Obama has the same skills, but he is more detailed about HOW we are going to get there, tonight everyone will see that.

[greenpete58]

This was the best speech I've ever heard by Clinton. If I had to sum it up - and sum up this election - it's what he said about the Republican argument: "We left you with a total mess. You didn't clean it up fast enough. So put us back in office."

No thanks.

[kabulate]

I'm not sure if there is another American with as much pragmatic personal appeal to more people than Bill Clinton. By bringing the wight of his full endorsement to the Obama-Biden ticket the Dems pulled off something that the Republican Convention could not. Bush was quite conspicuous in his absence from the RNC. Not so with Clinton and the DNC. People will organize and they will come out for this president because, as Clinton pointed out, the alternative is just too extreme.