Obama: Clinton Balanced Budget, Bush Created Huge Deficit, I’m Balancing Again

"I want to make this point even though it's a little off topic, but oftentimes it is the backdrop against which these debates take place. If you listen to some of my political critics, they always want to paint me or the Democratic party as this tax and spend, you know, irresponsible.

Let me say this. Since I came into office, the federal deficit has come down by two-thirds. It hasn't gone up, it's come down by two-thirds. So when Bill Clinton was president, budget got balanced and we had low deficits. Then somebody else came in and deficits started going up. 

Then I came in and I inherited this huge recession that drove up the deficits and then we started whittling them down even as we were expanding the earned income tax credit, even as we're expanding pell grants. Because part of what we did is we said, well, let's make sure the tax code is fair. Let's make sure we eliminate the programs that don't work to help middle class families. 

There are ways to afford in our budget what needs to be done to help middle class families without blowing up the deficit but it does require us making some choices."