Bill Clinton: GOP being "spiteful"

The former president said Republican efforts seem historic case of "begging for America to fail"

Published September 29, 2013 5:45PM (EDT)

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," former President Bill Clinton had strong words for the GOP (and no words on his wife's 2016 campaign). Commenting on the party's fierce push for cuts and obsession with fighting Obamacare, Clinton noted, ""I've never seen a time-- can you remember a time in your lifetime when a major political party was just sitting around, begging for America to fail?"

Clinton of triangulation fame also advised President Obama against negotiating with the GOP, describing Republican budget hawks as "spiteful":

"If I were the president, I wouldn't negotiate over these draconian cuts that are gonna take food off the table of low-income working people, while they leave all the agricultural subsidies in for high-income farmers and everything else," he said. "It's chilling to me. The entitlement spending is going down as the unemployment rate drops and the economy grows. Half of the deficit's already disappeared. The rest of it just seems almost spiteful."




By Natasha Lennard

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.

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Aol_on Bill Clinton Budget Budget Cuts Entitlement Cuts Gop Obamacare Republicans This Week Video