The Clinton Era: Domestic Policy, 1993-1997
The Clinton Era I: Debating Domestic Policy, 1993-1997 o Health Care
• Healthcare prices were increasing drastically.
• Hilary’s task force proposed seeping reform plan at expense of increased tobacco taxes.
• Defeated by lobbyists for doctors, tobacco companies, the insurance industry, retired persons.
• Fall of plan cost the Clinton presidency
• While the plan failed, health care was still a major issue. o Crime and welfare reform
• 1994-Clinton propses anticrime bill to fund drug treatment, etc.
• Clinton’s 1994 welfare-reform bill said that all able-bodied recipients of payments from major welfare program must obtain jobs after two years, in a public-service job if necessary. • Congress ignores, it is not enacted. o Clinton’s public support
• Considered too ready to compromise, too inclined to flit from issue to issue.
• More sexual harassment charges (Arkansas employee Paula Jones said Clinton had solicited sexual favors when he was governor)
• Christian Coaltion, religious right
• 1994: A Sharp Right Turn o Clinton Looses popularity
• Call for homosexuals being accepted in the army made him look bad
• New middle class movement to downsize government, reform welfare, slash taxes, shift power to states o 1994 Elections:
• Republican landslide; GOP controlled both houses for first time since 1954.
• Evangelical Christians flocked to the polls
• Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson insisted that the states were now the best source of policy ideas.
• “Contract with America:” pledged tax cuts, congressional term limits, tougher crime laws, balanced-budget amendment o The New Congress
• Constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget passed by the House; narrowly rejected by the Senate.
• House Republicans attacked “liberal elite” institutions-PBS, National Endowments for the
• The numerous bills, etc. were reminiscent of LBJ’s great society, FDR’s new deal o Foreign Relations:
• The Republic landslide signaled a turn
• Healthcare prices were increasing drastically.
• Hilary’s task force proposed seeping reform plan at expense of increased tobacco taxes.
• Defeated by lobbyists for doctors, tobacco companies, the insurance industry, retired persons.
• Fall of plan cost the Clinton presidency
• While the plan failed, health care was still a major issue. o Crime and welfare reform
• 1994-Clinton propses anticrime bill to fund drug treatment, etc.
• Clinton’s 1994 welfare-reform bill said that all able-bodied recipients of payments from major welfare program must obtain jobs after two years, in a public-service job if necessary. • Congress ignores, it is not enacted. o Clinton’s public support
• Considered too ready to compromise, too inclined to flit from issue to issue.
• More sexual harassment charges (Arkansas employee Paula Jones said Clinton had solicited sexual favors when he was governor)
• Christian Coaltion, religious right
• 1994: A Sharp Right Turn o Clinton Looses popularity
• Call for homosexuals being accepted in the army made him look bad
• New middle class movement to downsize government, reform welfare, slash taxes, shift power to states o 1994 Elections:
• Republican landslide; GOP controlled both houses for first time since 1954.
• Evangelical Christians flocked to the polls
• Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson insisted that the states were now the best source of policy ideas.
• “Contract with America:” pledged tax cuts, congressional term limits, tougher crime laws, balanced-budget amendment o The New Congress
• Constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget passed by the House; narrowly rejected by the Senate.
• House Republicans attacked “liberal elite” institutions-PBS, National Endowments for the
• The numerous bills, etc. were reminiscent of LBJ’s great society, FDR’s new deal o Foreign Relations:
• The Republic landslide signaled a turn