BOSTON -- Former President Bill Clinton made an appearance Wednesday at the library dedicated to his boyhood hero, John F. Kennedy. Newscenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that during the appearance he criticized public scrutiny into the private lives of presidents.

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Clinton Addresses Economy

The former president was definitely among friends this afternoon after accepting an invitation from the Kennedy Library to hold an one-hour forum on domestic issues and the roles of the United States in the world. The forum was actually a prelude to a City Year fund-raiser that he is attending Wednesday night.

Clinton was warmly received after an introduction by his close friend Sen. Edward Kennedy. The afternoon forum was meant to get Clinton's thoughts on government today while reflecting on the Kennedy presidency. His first topic was to talk about President Kennedy's tax cuts -- which he said made sense, as he put it , as opposed to the Bush tax cuts, which he said do not.

"The real reason for the tax cuts and their particular design in 2001 and 2003 was ideological, almost theological, the notion that we're all just put upon by this onerous government of ours taking our hard earned money away and that there's no such thing as a bad tax cut and no such thing as a good spending program unless it lays concrete or builds a missile. These tax cuts are too small in the short run to do any good and way too big in the long run to avoid serious harm," Clinton said.

As for America's role in Iraq and the world, Clinton pointed out the hypocrisy of Washington's attitude towards the French and the Germans when they refused to back the war against Saddam Hussein.

"Every one of these countries know to go after Osama Bin Laden and there's not a shred of evidence that the Iraq thing had anything to do with Sept. 11. No. 2, French, German and Canadian soldiers are all in Afghanistan today. No. 3, the new Afghan army is being trained by a cooperative effort of French and American soldiers. Did you know that?" said Clinton.

During a question and answer period, Clinton said the thing that most surprised him about being an ex-president is the joy of having his life back, even though he still misses the work.