pessimistic and i do not see that much time, i have also seen them pull a lot of rabbits out of the head, especially in the waning days of the session. >> you asked about tax cuts. what did you hear from him? >> i was struck by his displeasure, shall we say, with president obama. although, it is not a difficult quote to obtain foreign journalists these days. obtain for journalists these days. he dislikes so much, but he also knows there are parts that will help the state. what will you do? we will see. >> thank you for being on " newsmakers." >> thank you. >> in london, students rioted over higher tuitions and residents worry about program health and politicians debate the debt crisis. this month, q&a expands to two programs this weekend with interviews from london. tonight, matthew paris who now writes for "the times of london." >> this week, on prime minister's questions, david cameron talks about concerns over increases in university tuition and support for school sports programs. and he talks about the transition of troops out of afghanistan. "prime minister's questions" is tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> former president bill clinton spoke with reporters at the white house friday in defense of the tax cuts agreement between president obama and congressional republicans. he also urged the senate to ratify the start whipple treaty. this appearance happened shortly after a private meeting in the oval office. it is about 35 minutes. >> hello, everybody. >> obviously, there's a big debate going on this week. agreementlk about the we have struck to provide billions of dollars in tailored 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 care, these 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 happened to have this as a topic of conversation. i thought, given the fact that he presided over as good an economy we have seen in our lifetimes, it might be useful for him to share some of his thoughts. i will let him speak very briefly. i action have to go over and do just one more christmas party. he may decide he may want to take some questions. i am sure -- i just wanted to make sure you heard from him directly. >> thank you very much, mr. president. first of all, i feel awkward being here and now you will leave me here all by myself. [laughter] but we just say a couple of things. first of all, i still spend about an hour a day studying this economy. i am not running for anything. i do not have a political agenda. i tried 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. i make quite a bit of money now. the position that the republicans have urged will personally benefit me. and i would not support it. i do not think that my tax cut is the most economically efficient way to get the economy going again. but i do not 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 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 it will slip back, which is what has happened in other financial collapses, like what japan faced and something we have to avoid in america. what was said that? first of all, clearly, the extension of unemployment, which gives people a percentage of the income they were previously making, that money will be spent and it will bolster the economy for the next couple of years. secondly, the conversion of a make-work tax credit that the president passed before, which went to 95% of the american people, converting that into $100,000,000,000.-year relief is 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, something i have not seen in their reports, this agreement will really help america over the long term because it continues the credit for manufacturing jobs related to energy coming into america. in the last two years, there have been 30 high-powered battery factory is opening up in america. it takes 20% of the world share of that. it could be 40% by 2014. this is a good thing, bringing manufacturing back to america, because it is a huge multiplier for bringing jobs. in my opinion, this is a good bill. i hope that my fellow democrats will support it. for agreeing to include things that were important to be president. there is never a perfect bipartisan bill in the eyes of a partisan. we all see this differently. i believe this will be a significant net plus for the country. i think people are breathing a sigh of relief that you are agreeing on something. do not minimize the impact of the on the planet release our working families or the payroll tax --unemployment relief for working families or the payroll tax relief. we need to get the $2 trillion that banks have in reserves in the economy again. we need to get the money from corporate treasuries out into the economy again. you know how i feel. i think the people who benefit most should pay most. that has always been my position. but not for class warfare reasons but for rebuilding the middle class in america. we have the distribution of authority we now in the congress. i think this is a much better agreement that would be -- that would be reached if we waited for january. it will have a much more positive impact on the economy. i would like to say one other thing on another subject just to be recorded on the record. they do not need my support on this. we had some good republican support and the first president bush. i think the start -- s.t.a.r.t. agreement is important to our national security prison it is not a radical agreement. we agreed in principle on this same reduction. there was no way he could get it through the russian system in his second term. so we did not proceed because it cannot be ratified there. i am not sure the senate would have ratified it then. i think they will now if there is enough encouragement. the cooperation we will get from the russians and the signal that will be sent to the world on non-proliferation while all these other things are going on to threaten -- to increase non- proliferation -- these weapons are 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. it should be beyond party. they worked hard and i hope it will be ratified. >> a lot of democrats on capitol hill say this is a bad deal. president obama could have gotten more. what is your message to them? >> my message is, i do not believe that is true. in january, they will be in the majority. this will dramatically reduce their incentive to extend unemployment benefits, to support the conversion for more tax credits. i read all the economic studies. every single unbiased economic studies says the best thing you can do it your point to take a tax cut passed to grow the economy is to give a payroll tax cut. hong kong had a stimulus. they gave almost 10% of the low income working people two months free rent in public housing. in most important thing that they did was payroll tax relief. all of the people who study this believe it is the most important thing. i do not believe they can get a better deal by waiting. this is what nobody is talking about it is important. i do a lot of this energy work. these tax credits have made us competitive again. i did not see a single story that credited senator harry reid's election with the fact that three weeks before the election, two new plants were announced in nevada. thousands of people are making wind turbines. both companies are owned by chinese interests. they said they are here because we decided to compete with them in the future and gave them tax credits. i do not believe there is a better deal out there. >> you mentioned the republican congress taking office in january. what was your advice to president obama today about how to deal with the congress and the opposition party? >> i have a general rule. whenever he asked me about and whenever i say should become public only if he decides to make it public. he can say whatever he wants publicly. >> here is what i will say. i have been keeping the first lady waiting for about 30 minutes. i am going to take off. >> i do not want to make her mad. please go. >> mr. president, is there anything else that can be done in your opinion to loosen up the credit markets that have been so tight. if people cannot get their hands on capital, how can they beat the entrepreneur is they want today. this is something the republicans have thought all along. what is the next step? >> let me run through the numbers again. we are not talking about high risk. that is what the financial regulation bill tries to stop. it charges the by to regulators -- we know they need to have more leverage than the traditional community banks. let's start with the community banks. if they loaned money conservatively, they can loan chilly -- lone $10 for every dollar they have in the bank. if they have mortgage issues are resolved, most of the mortgage debt has been unloaded to fannie mae or freddie mac or has vanished. what i believe is going on it is, first of all, the business community is not coming forward as aggressively in the small business community. the small business incentives -- there are measures to get the small businesses to give loan guarantees. it appears to me that the community banks are somewhat uncertain about how the financial reform bill, which i supported, applies to them and what because of compliance might be. the two things that bill did was to require federal regulators to monitor every month, the big banks, and required them to set aside a certain amount of capital. that bill said that if this happens again, the shareholders and executives have to eat it. there are other things regarding credit cards to deal with. it is really important just to do an aggressive 100% information drench. i would do it bank by bank by bank so that everyone knows what they have to do, how much it costs, and how quickly this can be resolved. then it is important that the community banks and the people who might borrow from them understand where the small businesses of america are, where the manufacturers are with the various loan guarantees and credits and deductions that are available under these laws. we too often assume that when a lot passes, people know it has passed, what is in it, and how it applies to them. that may not be true in this case because there has been so much debate about it. there was a debate that occurred in the context of a campaign rather than in the context of, let me tell you how this works and how you can get a loan. that is what needs to be done over the next three months. the money is there to get this country out of this mess. i also believe the same thing of big companies. we should analyze the situation of every company that has $1 billion in cash. we should ask them to be honest about what it would take to get them back into the investing business. these companies clearly have a preference for reinvesting in america or they would have put his money somewhere else already. it is an amazing thing, 1.8 trillion dollars -- $1.80 trillion in corporate cash. those are the things we have to do now. i cannot answer your question. the bankers i talk to in arkansas and in small places that i visit around where i live in new york say they know they need to ramp up the activity. they say they have to get the green light about how they are going to comply with the loss. he might be able to use your program to do it. he might be able to bring some bankers on and work through this thing work -- work through this for people. but some democrats are saying the president did not -- >> some democrats are saying the president did not go in and fight hard enough. some are saying he should be a one-term president. has he damaged his credibility? has he let tea party down? >> i do not think so. i respectfully disagree about that. a lot of them are hurting now. i get it. i did 133 events for them. i believe congress in the last three years did a far better job than the american people thought they did. i went to extraordinary efforts to try to explain what i thought had been done and the things i thought were most favorable to them. results are what they are. the numbers will only get worse in january in terms of negotiating. the president -- if we had 5% growth and unemployment was dropping like a rock, you could have a mexican standoff and say, it will be you and not me who the voters will hold responsible. that is not the circumstance we face. the united states had 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 do not want to slip back down. in order to make it happen over the long run -- i was asked a question. we have to go beyond direct investments whether they are stimulus projects or tax cuts -- to private growth. i personally believe this is a good deal and the best he could have gotten under the circumstances. i disagree. >> you made a number of effective calls for the health care plans. have you been asked to make any calls for the democratic members on behalf of the health-care program? there are comparisons being made between the 1994 collection and the 2010 election. do you think they are analogous situations? >> all of you will be under enormous pressure to develop a story line. there are some parallels and some that are different. i will let you do that. i am out of politics except to say i care about my country. i want to get this economy going again. i believe it is necessary for these parties to work together. for example, the story line is how well we work with the republicans. we play political kabuki or a year. we had to government shutdowns. we cannot afford that now. people did not feel it in 1994. we cannot afford that. we have got to pull together and both sides are going to have to eat some things they do not like. we cannot afford to have the kind of impact we had last time over a long period of time. we do not want to slip back into a recession. we have to keep this thing going and accelerate its base. this is the best available option. as soon as the election was over, i took a foundation trip to asia. i just got back from the west coast doing mike bennet with out there meeting people who support -- doing my annual trip to sea people who support my foundation. >> i get the feeling you are happier to be here, and giving advice than govern. >> i had quite a good time govern. i am happy to be here. when the bullets are fired are unlikely to hit me unless they are ricochet --i am glad to be here. i think the president made a good decision. i want my country to do well. after the 1994 elections, i said the american people have put us both in the same boat. we are either going to grow or sink. i want us to row. i had a long talk with the prime minister today. he has done a remarkable job of being a loyal prime minister and not being involved in the political and polyol -- imbrolio that is going on. he at some outsiders to come in who are incredibly technology -- incredibly knowledgeable. we are going to have our commission meeting next week. we may move it to the dominican republic. the best thing we can do for the people of haiti is to prove that the donors are committed to the long-term reconstruction process. whoever gets elected president, the best thing they can do -- everything understands they had to have this election under enormously difficult circumstances. even getting identification cards was difficult. what i can say is it was a calm day. they will try to get a recount that will have support across the political spectrum. $70 billion were released. we will be hiring more people immediately. we are born to improve -- going to approve a lot more projects. >> do you think your appearance here today will help sway votes among house democrats? the reason i ask is the courts --as it is because a lot of them are ansy about the president because of triangulation. >> i told president obama that he should read a lecture that franklin roosevelt game in 1926 before he was the vice president and nominee and before he came down with polio. he discussed the dilemma of the progressive movement in american politics. i have an enormous amount of respect for the democrats in the house. i have already told you that i regret so many of them law. some of our best people lost. i get where they are coming from. i can only tell you that my economic analysis is that given the alternatives i can imagine becoming law, this is the best economic results for america. i think it is enormous relief for america to think that both parties might vote for something that they can both agree on. there is no way you can have a compromise without having something in the bill you do not like. i do not know if i can influence anybody. some of the places where i campaigned the people one -- people won and some places i went and campaigned the people lost. 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 a collective debt of the country had risen from $1 trillion to $4 trillion. it was the first time in american history where we were ever running structural deficits of any size. we were having to pay too much money. it was costing us a lot to borrow money in the public sector. we were taking 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 cost. that sparked the recession that we had in the early 1990's. what happened this time was totally different. this time there was a collapse of a financial system, which took interest rates to 0%. there is a lot of alarm now. people say that interest rates went up on bonds and in debt in the last couple of days. and they said, is it because the increasing the deficit in the short term? is it because of the economy growing? that does not bother me. we have to get out of deflation. the biggest problem we have right now is deflation. i am a depression-era kid. i do not like deficits ever, really. we had four surpluses when i was president. that is what i like. i like balanced budgets and surpluses, when you have growth. but if i were in office, i would've done what the president has done. you have to first put the brakes on a contracting economy. then you have to somehow hold it together until growth resumes. when growth resumes, you have to have interest rates higher than 0%. if they get too high, you will be alarmed, but you should be encouraged that interest rates are beginning to creep up again. it is the sign of a healthy economy, and the idea that there would be competition for money. i believe that we will have to take aggressive and disciplined action to eliminate the structural deficit again. it was a mistake to go back to structural deficits. i think if america were out of debt on a normal basis, and we did not have to borrow money from our major trading partners, we would have more economic freedom and economic security. 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 on balance. one more