"When I was in Ghana -- this lady came up to me and gave me a shirt that was made in a shirt factory there -- where 400 African women were working because I signed this trade bill. She said, 'We didn't have any jobs before and now we are all working, so here is your shirt," a satisfied Clinton commented.
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Clinton Says He's 'Most Important Person in the World' to GOP
Chicago (CNSNews.com) - Former President Bill Clinton declared on Thursday that his newfound wealth has made him "the most important person in the world" to Republicans. "They were really mean to me -- those Republicans -- when I was president. As soon as I made money, I became the most important person in the world to them. The way they take care of me is touching," Clinton said during a sit-down conversation with Jesse Jackson at the 33rd Annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition conference in Chicago.
Clinton accused the GOP and Bush of caring only about the wealthiest Americans to the exclusion of everyone else.
"They decided to go back to Reaganomics -- trickle down economics-- with a vengeance [after 9-11]. [They believe] there is no such thing as a bad tax cut," Clinton said.
"So what did they do? They passed that Leave No Child Behind bill, you remember that? This year they left 2.1 million children behind. They did," Clinton told a supportive crowd of 1,000 people in a hotel ballroom.
"They are paying for my tax cut by kicking 300,000 poor kids out of their after-school program," he added.
Clinton also accused the administration of cutting U.S. aid to a school lunch program in the developing world so that wealthy Americans like himself could buy more luxury items.
"Last year they cut that program to $50-million dollars from $300-million dollars to protect my tax cut," Clinton said. "Hundreds of thousands of kids aren't getting food in school so I can, you know, buy another watch. I am telling you, that's what the deal is," he added.
Clinton said that as a wealthy man, he would be happy to pay more in taxes to fund programs he feels are vital to the nation.
"I like saying this now - 'cause I literally -- I didn't have any money ever. I had the lowest net worth of any modern president when I went in office and then they bankrupted me when I left, and I didn't car, 'cause I wasn't in it for the money anyway," he said.
"Let me tell you something -- people like me -- it's a privilege to live in this country and if you are lucky to have something, you ought to give something back, so that all the kids can get educated."
Clinton called Bush's economic policies "crazy."
"Nobody makes anyone live in this country. If I want to go live in a tax haven, I can do it. I am proud to be an American-- I like living here -- and I want to pay my fair share. I think most people do. This is crazy -- this economic policy," he said.
'Slapped to death' by flags?
Clinton predicted there will be an onslaught of flag-waving at the upcoming GOP convention in New York later this summer.
"They are coming to my town now for their convention, and it's in early September, and there is going to be so many flags you going to get slapped to death. Everybody is going to be patriotic and that's wonderful. But I'll tell you one thing they won't do before they get there -- they will not pass this [current federal] budget, because this budget that they've got on the [Congressional] floor now -- to protect my tax cut -- kicks the rest of -- listen to this, 1.3 million children out of their after-school programs," Clinton said.
"If you kick another million kids out of their after-school program just to protect my tax cut, it's wrong, and the American people know it," he added.
Clinton also said the GOP is going to find itself in a hypocritical posture over police protection.
"The other thing they want to do, which is really breathtaking, is they want to get rid of all federal support for 88,000 uniformed police officers," Clinton said.
"Five thousand of that 88,000 are uniformed New York City police offers who put their lives on the line for us on September the 11th , 2001. So they going to go to New York and say, 'Thank you very much, adios, I got to protect Bill Clinton's tax cut.' Now if you think that is good policy, you should ratify it. If not, we got a better deal for you," he said.
Clinton said the GOP rejected a billion-dollar anti-terrorism proposal that would have doubled the number of inspections of incoming containers at ports and airports because the Bush administration did not want to limit the size of its tax cuts.
Democrats, on the other hand, wanted to "ask the 200,000 Americans who paid income taxes on more than a million dollars to reduce their tax cut -- listen to this -- from $88,000 to 83,000 dollars a year. That would give us a billion dollars a year," Clinton said.
"And we will take five thousand dollars from the 200,000 richest American, who are still going to get a big old tax cut, and we will make 300 million Americans safer by doubling the number of containers we check in ports and airports," he said.
Clinton said the proposal should have been an easy sell.
"Now, I know a lot of those 200,000 [wealthy] people, I know a lot of Republicans in that category. I don't know anyone -- not a single soul -- that wouldn't have said 'For goodness sakes, take my 5,000 dollars, it's peanuts for me, and make 300 million Americans safer,'" Clinton said to a supportive crowd.
"Nearly everyone would say take my five grand and run with it, right?" he added.
Clinton, using dramatic pauses, concluded his story.
"It failed -- that proposal. They didn't do it, and you know why they didn't do it? Because [House Majority Leader] Tom Delay (R-TX) and the Republican leadership in the House and the White House opposed it," Clinton said.
"They want you to be safer but not if it costs me five thousand dollars. Now if you think that is good policy, you should ratify it -- if not, we got a better deal for you with John Kerry and the Democrats," he added.
Clinton said he would not engage in any attempts to characterize his opponents as "bad people."
"I believe that we spend too much time in American politics and in the media trying to convince people that those who don't agree with us are bad people. I prefer to think we should argue who is right and who is wrong, not who's good and bad, he said to an approving audience.
Clinton also urged the Bush administration to invest in Africa and discussed how his trade policies made a difference on the continent.
"When I was in Ghana -- this lady came up to me and gave me a shirt that was made in a shirt factory there -- where 400 African women were working because I signed this trade bill. She said, 'We didn't have any jobs before and now we are all working, so here is your shirt," a satisfied Clinton commented.
'A disgrace'
Clinton called the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the 2000 presidential election "a disgrace" and "one of the five worst [court] decisions in American history."
"This is right up there with Dredd Scott [decision of 1857] -- you remember what happened to Dredd Scott? He gets to a free state and they still say he's not a person; so he has no standing in court, so he has to go home.
"This is up there with Plessy vs. Ferguson, where the guy that was one-eighth black could be forced to ride in the segregated railroad car -- separate but equal. This is right up there with Korematsu [v. United States in 1944], where all those Japanese people were herded into detention camps in World War Two," he said.
"And [it's right up there with] the cases at the beginning of the 20th century where the Supreme Court ruled that minimum-hour laws for little children....were unconstitutional 'cause they interfered with the property rights of the employers. Those are the five worst cases in American history, and the Florida case is one of them," he added.
Clinton said the Florida ballot recount was "a perfect example in the difference in the way I view the world and the way the people on the far right, who now dominate the Republican Party, view the world. They believe the most important thing is to concentrate power in the hands of people who share their values.
"They believe that it would be nice if they won the election, but it wasn't essential because they could go to the Supreme Court," he added.
'Openly anti-Semitic campaign'
Clinton called the controversial "butterfly" ballots used in some Florida counties so confusing that they resulted in "Jewish Americans" unintentionally casting ballots for Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan's "openly anti-Semitic campaign."
"That's why 3,200 people in Palm Beach County who were Jewish Americans voted for Pat Buchanan, who had an openly anti-Semitic campaign. They meant to vote for [Democratic presidential candidate] Al Gore," he said.
Clinton also excoriated the GOP for not supporting the extension of the "assault weapons" ban: "The policy of the opposition party in the Congress is that after the Congress goes home this year, we should have fewer police on the street and more assault weapons on the street. That is their policy," he said.
"I had a big fight with the NRA over this, and one of the reason we lost the Congress in 1994 is because we passed the Brady Law and background check for handgun purchases and 'cause we banned assault weapons," he continued.
'Weren't like other white people'
On a more personal note, Clinton spoke of his childhood in rural Arkansas, and Jackson praised him for reaching out to African-Americans during a time of segregation.
"The credit for that goes entirely to my grandparents," Clinton said.
"I don't deserve any credit for that. My grandparents weren't like other white people, they didn't think they had to look down on black people to think that they were somebody. I have no earthly idea how they came to be that way," he added.
'Rising appreciation' for Clinton
Jackson and Clinton traded compliments at the end of their conversation.
"You were my special envoy [to Africa] there on more than one occasion and you did a brilliant job," Clinton told Jackson.
Jackson responded in kind, stating, "There is a rising appreciation of the effectiveness of the eight years of President Bill Clinton."
'Black vote is not for sale'
During Clinton's discussion with Jackson, a group of African-American protestors picketed on a sidewalk outside the hotel.
Pastor Anthony Williams of Chicago's St. Stephens Lutheran Church led a group of community and religious leaders in chants against both Jackson and Clinton.
"Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton need to be in the same jail cell. Jesse Jackson has tricked the people, deceived the people. Jesse Jackson has stolen from the black community for 30 years. What did he do with all that corporate money?" Williams chanted.
"The Democratic Party -- your day is over with. We are going to show you that the black vote is not for sale. Bill Clinton did more to hurt the black community than to help the black community," Williams continued.
"Under the Bill Clinton administration, more blacks went to jail, Bill Clinton put more black men in jail than any Republican administration. Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson need to be in the same jail cell, singing "We Shall Overcome," he added.
'Black genocide'
An African-American pro-life protestor, Kathy Reese, lamented that the civil rights establishment has turned its back on the unborn.
"They have aborted more babies that were ever lynched during the civil rights era. They lynched approximately thirty-five hundred black people, but we kill that many black babies every three days in the black community, and the black pastors are saying nothing," Reese told CNSNews.com outside the hotel where Jackson's conference was being held.
"On any given Saturday, if you visit some of the Chicagoland abortion clinics, there are so many black women in there you would think that they were giving something away. It's devastating our community," Reese said.
"It's the leading cause of death in our community, more than AIDS, more than heart attacks, more than violent crimes, more than anything, abortion is the number one reason for death in the black community," she added.
Reese noted that Jackson was strongly pro-life until the 1980s, once referring to abortion as the "black genocide."
"Life has always been precious to black people, and Jesse himself was almost aborted and now he is betraying us like this," she said.
