Wealth & Money Quote by William J. Clinton

Clinton’s genius here is the way he drains moral heat from a fight that normally runs on it. “Raising taxes” and “cutting spending” are the twin altar calls of American budget religion, and he declines to worship at either one until a prior condition is met: “get this economy off the ground.” The line turns fiscal policy into aerodynamics. You don’t argue about seat assignments while the plane is stalled on the runway.

The intent is tactical and presidential at once: reassure jittery voters and markets that growth is the priority, while refusing to be boxed into the standard partisan scripts. By pairing “either one,” Clinton performs symmetry, implying that austerity and tax hikes are equally premature. That’s a political shield: it inoculates him against Republicans who brand Democrats as tax-and-spend, and against Democrats who treat spending cuts as betrayal.

Then he adds the disarming personal pledge: “I’ll pay more.” It’s a classic Clinton move, borrowing credibility through self-implication. He signals virtue without committing to policy. The subtext is blunt: sacrifice is not the binding constraint; macroeconomics is. Higher taxes might be ethically satisfying, even personally acceptable, but “it won’t solve the problem” reframes the debate from fairness to effectiveness.

Contextually, it’s the language of a leader trying to manage a fragile recovery and a skittish coalition: growth first, budget fights later. It’s also an argument about sequencing masquerading as moderation, which is why it lands. He offers a third posture - not ideological surrender, but strategic delay - and makes it sound like common sense.