This collection of lies, half-truths, deceptions and dubious quotes is
apparently from the May 1993 issue of Spy Magazine which has a front cover
with a picture of Clinton with an elongated nose and the title: "Clinton's
First 100 Lies." It sounds like it was written in mid-March, so it is
already a little out-of-date and incomplete.
==
Spy Magazine: CLINTON'S FIRST 100 LIES
======================================
1. "I want to have a team established that can hit the ground running."
2. "My first priority would be to pass a jobs program, to introduce it on
the first day I was inaugurated."
3. "The critical issues that America is crying out for leadership on:
jobs, the health-care crises, the need to control the economy...
I will deal with them from day one."
4. At the MTV Inaugural Ball he said, "Hillary and I have to go to eleven
balls tonight, but...Chelsea's going to stay."
5. In May 1992 he said he wouldn't support anything that "promoted the
homosexual life-style."
6. January 29, 1993: "This compromise [on the question of gays in the
military] is not everything I would have hoped for." In fact, the
"compromise" was almost exactly the plan he had discussed privately
with gay groups back in November.
7. Asked about getting bogged down the first week of his presidency on
gays in the military, he said, "I spent very little time on the issue
myself."
8. Twenty-five words later he added, "I was frankly appalled that we
spent so much time the first week talking about that instead of how
to get the economy going again."
9. "Reagan voted for Clinton," a top staff member told TV Guide. "I
have it on the highest authority."
10. Asked about his "willingness" to normalize relations with Iraq, Clinton
said, "Everybody who heard those conversations was astonished that such
a conclusion could have been drawn...Nobody asked me about normaliza-
tion." He had been asked about both "normal relations" and "normaliza-
tion."
11. "I don't like to use the word sacrifice." -- May 1992
"It will not be easy. It will require sacrifice." -- January 1993
12. "I will offer middle-income tax cuts. The average working family's
tax bill will go down about 10 percent." -- November 1991
13. "Middle-class taxpayers will have a choice between a children's
tax credit or a significant reduction in their income tax rate."
-- _Putting_People_First_
14. "I want to make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my
view, is central to any attempt we're going to make to have a short-
term economic strategy." -- January 1992
15. "An America in which middle-class families' incomes -- not their taxes
are going up." -- July 1992
16. "I'm not going to raise taxes on the middle class" -- July 1992
17. "But I can tell you this. I'm not going to raise taxes on middle-
class Americans to pay for the programs I've recommended"
-- October 1992
18. Also in October, his energy coordinator ruled out an energy tax.
19. At the MTV Inaugural Ball: "Do my wife and daughter look great tonight
or what?"
20. He vowed to "oppose racial quotas."
21. He promised "no token appointments."
22. He decried "bean-counters" even as transition employees were
ethnically coding resumes for high-tech bean-counting.
23. Policy experts in Washington received calls from Clinton transition-
staff members wondering if they knew of any Asian American women
who might be interested in being in the Cabinet.
24. "{Bush} won't break the stranglehold special interests have on
our elections and lobbyists have on our government. I will."
25. "In short, Mr. {Ron} Brown has taken and will take all appropriate
actions to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest"
-- George Stephanopoulos
26. Robert Rubin "is dealing very, very cautiously with his former
clients" -- Dee Dee Myers
27. "I will not hide behind the walls of the White House" -- September 1992
At press time, he had avoided a formal press conference longer than
any other modern president.
28. "I invested in the future of our people and balanced the state
budget with honesty and fairness and without gimmicks."
29. "Thank goodness the networks have a fact check so I don't have to go
blue in the face anymore. Mr. Bush said once again I was going to
have a $150 billion tax increase." He proposed a $207 billion tax
increase.
30. "...And we have $140 billion in spending cuts." He proposed $117
billion in [dubious] spending cuts, maybe.
31. He counted a rise in the taxes on Social Security as a spending cut.
32. Two days after presenting his plan, he said it was basically 50-50,
spending cuts and revenue increases, the first four years."
33. "We also provide over $100 billion in tax relief, in terms of incentives
for new plants, new small businesses, new technologies, new housing"
-- October 1992. His plan actually contains $16 billion in tax relief.
34. "I call on Congress to enact an immediate jobs package of over $30
billion" -- February 1993. The plan contains $15 billion in direct
investment.
35. "An America in which the rich are not soaked..." On top of his "top"
rate, people making more than $250,000 also pay what he once called
a millionaire's surtax.
36. "For the wealthiest -- those earning more than $180,000 per year..."
-- February 1993. By $180,000 per year, he meant couples with combined
incomes of $140,000 per year and individuals with taxable incomes
of $115,000.
37. "I want to emphasize the facts about this plan -- 98.8 percent of
America's families will have no increase in their income tax rates,
only 1.2 percent at the top."
38. He vowed to crack down on "those who see the tax code as a table
game to be won," but his plan leaves the top capital-gains-tax
rate at 28 percent, once again creating tax shelter incentives.
39. "I'm going to tell you, in very plain language, what I plan to do
as president."
40. "We don't need to tamper with Social Security... We're not going to
fool with Social Security" -- September 1992
CLINTON CONSIDERS CURB ON SOCIAL SECURITY COST-OF-LIVING RAISES
-- Washington Post, January 29, 1993
41. When Clinton's people said his program would add 500,000 jobs in 1993
and '94, they only counted jobs that might be created by his program
and did not subtract jobs that might be lost from increased taxes.
42. "We don't believe this will cost jobs," Stephanopoulos explained.
The previous October his boss had said, "You could raise taxes a lot
and try to balance the budget. You just make the unemployment problem
worse."
43. He says he wears a 45-Long, but he really wears a 46-Regular.
44. After pledging to cut the deficit in half within four years, he now
says it's "impossible."
45. "I have to be honest with you: The debt is $50 billion a year bigger
than we were told it was before the election." He said the fact that
the deficit was $346 billion was an "unsettling revelation." But
the previous July he had said, "The projected deficit is up to $400
billion."
46. The day he presented his economic plan, his people touted its
$493 billion in "deficit reduction" through 1997. The correct figure
was $325 billion.
47. His deficit projections do not include the cost of the savings-and-
loan bailout, which could add $25 billion to both fiscal 1993 and
'94.
48. "America has always transcended the hopes and dreams of every other
nation on Earth."
49. In July 1992, when a New York federal-appeals court found Bush's
policy if returning Haitian refugees has violated the Refugee Act,
Clinton called it "the correct decision." In March 1993, he went
to court to argue that his policy of returning Haitian refugees did
not violate the Refugee Act.
50. Asked what he'd eaten during a campaign stop at Wendy's, he said
he'd ordered grilled chicken and a Diet Coke. He later confessed,
"I also had a small cup of chili. I usually get a large."
51. "I'm trying, I'm really working on this" -- on his diet. "Offered
a choice of lamb, beef or chicken as an an entree, he took all three,
plus fish chowder, brocolli, salad, bread, and two scoops of apple
souffle" -- The New Republic, March 15, 1993
52. Throughout the campaign, he attacked Paul Tsongas's proposals for an
energy tax, a cut in entitlements and a middle-class tax increase.
53. "I want people like some of you in this audience to be part of a Clinton
administration, not because or in spite of your sexual orientation, but
because America needs you" -- May 1992. "According to administration
sources, the White House satisfied itself that [Janet] Reno was not gay
before going ahead with the nomination" -- Nina Totenberg, March 1993
54. Asked what role Hillary played in his selection of Reno, he said,
"None."
55. "Our plan seeks to attack subsidies that actually reward companies more
for shuttling their operations down here and moving them overseas."
The plan actually rewards companies that do research and development
here for their plants overseas.
56. "Large, highly profitable companies will have to pay a greater portion
of their net earnings in taxes." Larger depreciation writeoffs mean
many companies will have lower -- and sometimes nonexistent -- net
earning to tax.
57. "We need not just a new generation of leadership but a new gender of
leadership." After appointing Dee Dee Myers as the first female press
secretary, he took away most of her responsibilities and her office
and gave them to a man.
58. "I cut the federal bureaucracy by 100,000 positions." Many of the
"positions" he cut had not no working in them.
59. "The time has come to show the American people...that we can not only
start things, but we can actually stop things."
60. "We are slashing subsidies." In the first year of his plan, farm
subsidies will actually double.
61. After saying wool and mohair subsidies were World War I anachronisms,
he cut the program by 6 percent.
62. "I have already heard some people on the other side of the aisle say,
'He should have cut more.' I say, 'Show me where, and be specific --
not hot air. Show me where.'" On March 10 the House Budget Committee's
Republican members presented an 80-page program that would cut the
deficit by $429 billion over five years without raising taxes. They
were matter-of-factly voted down.
63. Presented with a two-foot pen symbolizing the presidential line-item
veto, he told Republican senators, "I surely look forward to using
this."
64. "I cut the White House staff by 25 percent." He achieved this by
defining *staff* to exclude hundreds of military communications
personnel at the White House, as well as the Trade Representative's
Office and the Office of Management and Budget.
65. He went to court in March and argued that his wife was "the functional
equivalent of a federal employee." Three days earlier, Hillary had
told reporters questioning her quasi-federal-employee position, "I
kind of view myself in some ways as a citizen representative."
66. "Every day I still get up and I feel a lot of gratitude just for
having the chance to serve."
67. He promised, "The old adage 'Mi casa, su casa' will be true when my
house is the White House," then banned smoking.
68. About his plan to close many military bases throughout the country,
he said, "This isn't downsizing for its own sake. This is right-sizing
for security's sake.
69. On why he visited the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt the day he
unveiled his military-base-closings plan: "I need to be here because
I'm commander in chief."
70. "I never broke the laws of my countries."
71. "If I become president, I will have a Cabinet that looks like America"
-- July 1992. Thirteen of his Cabinet's 18 members are lawyers, and
more than three quarters are millionaires.
72. "I want to appoint one person, one man or woman, to oversee and
coordinate all federal efforts [related to AIDS]." At press time,
he had not gotten around to it.
73. "I don't...believe they had a discussion about it, no" -- Stephanopoulos
on Zoe Baird's illegal nanny. "It was fully disclosed. He considered
it and did not think it was a problem" -- Myers a week later.
74. Asked whether Clinton was preparing to withdraw Baird's nomination on
January 21, Stephanopoulos replied, "Not at this point...Right now, Zoe
Baird is his nominee." About 13 hours later, Baird withdrew.
75. "I decided to run for president in 1991 because...I was afraid that the
American dream was in danger."
76. "It's not our policy to leak stories about potential nominees"
-- Stephanopoulos, denying that the White House had told reporters
that Kimba Wood would be the next attorney general nominee.
77. At different times, the White House explained that Wood was rejected
because talk shows wouldn't differentiate between Wood and Zoe Baird,
because she was "not forthcoming" and, finally, because despite having
obeyed all applicable laws, she had to meet "a special standard."
78. "It was never the administration's position that that was an issue,
and it's unfortunate that that ever was out there" -- Myers, asked if
the information that Wood had begun training to be a Playboy bunny was
leaked by someone inside the administration.
79. The White House also leaked inaccurate stories suggesting that Wood's
husband, Michael Kramer, had lobbied for Wood under the pretext of
interviewing Clinton for Time.
80. Asked about his new personal no-junk-food policy, he clarified, "I
don't necessarily consider McDonald's junk food."
81. After work on a $30,000 track behind the White House was temporarily
halted, the White House said it was waiting until enough money could
be raised to pay for it. Joe diGeronimo, president of the Massachusetts
company building the track, said they stopped working because "it was
cold."
82. After urging Bush to get involved in Bosnia throughout the campaign,
Clinton announced in February, "I do not believe that the military of
the United States should get involved unilaterally there now."
83. "It would be a great mistake to read this... as some initial foray
toward a wider military role" -- on the Bosnia food drop, early March.
84. Calling to thank En Vogue for agreeing to back up his brother, Roger,
he told the group he would come by the party and accompany Roger on the
sax when they sang "Rock Me, Baby."
85. He said through a spokeswoman, "The schools in the District of Columbia
and across the country are good schools."
86. "He doesn't dye his hair," according to a spokeswoman.
87. Asked why Hillary Clinton would get a West Wing office, a spokeswoman
said, "Because the president wanted her to be there."
88. "Mrs. Clinton was Hillary Rodham Clinton all through the campaign
and the transition" -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's press secretary.
89. In January he said, "I'll miss going down to the Y in the morning,
my blue-collar gym where there's nobody in bright Spandex outfits."
90. He said, "It is time for us to realize that there is not a government
program for every problem."
91. "I'm working on funding it just as close to what I recommended during
the campaign, about putting people as first as possible" -- on his
national service program, February 1993.
92. "Our national service plan will throw open the doors of college
opportunity to the daughters and sons of the middle class," he said,
while proposing a program that would create 20,000 jobs in its
first year, 100,000 after three years. When the full details of the
plan were unveiled a week later, it turned out that a summer pilot
project is open to only 1,000 to 2,000 students.
93. "We're going to have no sacred cows except the fundamental abiding
interest of the American people." And except the Supercollider and
several other projects in Lloyd Bentsen's home state.
94. Responding to reports that Clinton is a "closet cigar smoker," an
aide insisted, "He's not a cigar smoker. He chews on them."
95. "[Bush] won't take on the big insurance companies...I will."
Managed competition, his preferred health-reform plan, helps big
insurance companies.
96. He criticized Bush and Reagan for appointing political cronies as
ambassadors but then appointed Jean Kennedy Smith as ambassador to
Ireland. At press time, Democratic doyenne Pamela Harriman was his
likely choice for ambassador to France, and Swanee Hunt, daughter of
H.L. Hunt and the Democratic Party's second largest contributor, was
reported to be the front runner for ambassador to Italy.
97. Asked last June whom he would put on the Supreme Court, he said, "I
think Governor [Mario] Cuomo would make a good Supreme Court Justice."
98. "If we do right by this country, I don't care who gets credit for it."
99. "If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, I would appoint him Secretary of
State. And then I would suggest to Senator Gore that two of us resign
so he could become president."
100. "I want one of those great 100 days in which Congress would adopt my
healthcare and educational policies, my energy and economic initiatives,
and where the private sector would become engaged in a whole new
partnership to make this country great again."
(If anyone has anymore of these, please send them to me or post them.)
==
Bob (bobk@gibdo.engr.washington.edu) Seattle, Washington
Spell Checked and reformatted by Nathan Mates (nathan@visi.com)
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