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Line 110: − − ===Dirty tricks and blackmail=== − FBI special agent Gary Aldrich reported, James Carville and former Clinton adviser, now [[ABC News]] anchor [[George Stephanopoulos]] confirmed, after the Gingrich revolution of 1994 the Clinton administration ran a dirt-digging operation out of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff. "They hired upwards of 36 lawyers to staff the operation to handle 40 different cases," Aldrich, on White House duty at the time, said. "Once it became known that they had such an operation, then the blackmail itself took place." Carville and Stephanopoulos stated publicly there would be a "scorched-earth policy", and that everyone who had "skeletons in their closet" would be exposed.<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_23_16/ai_62896460/</ref> [[CNN]] has reported private divorce papers of Newt Gingrich were indeed removed from what was alleged sealed storage at the Carroll County, Georgia courthouse, "when he (Gingrich) became the center of attention." The documents were later made public by CNN.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/26/politics/gingrich-divorce-file/index.html</ref> − − In 1995 President Clinton and Congressional Republicans fought a bitter battle over the new federal [[budget]]. Clinton vetoed the Republican budget bill, claiming that it cut social programs. Speaker Gingrich believed that Clinton would back down and approve the budget. If not the entire government would shut down because of lack of funds. Clinton allowed just that, and by doing so gained political capital by successfully blaming that shut down on Republicans. Soon afterword, Clinton agreed to the Republican's goal of a balanced budget.
→Presidency (1993-2001): reorder some
===Don't ask don't tell ===
===Don't ask don't tell ===
:''Main article'' : [[Don't Ask, Don't Tell]]
:''Main article'' : [[Don't Ask, Don't Tell]]
Upon being elected President, Bill Clinton's first act was to propose and win legislation to enforce the [[Department of Defense]]'s "Don't Ask Don't Tell" rule, which has been described by some as a major discriminatory policy legitimizing and promoting [[homophobia]] and [[bigot]]ry, causing untold personel and emotional anguish for thousands of America's service personal.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y</ref> The Law, enacted by a [[Democratic party]] controlled [[House of Representatives]] and [[Senate]], was found [[unconstitutional]] after a suit brought by [[Log Cabin Republicans]], a homosexual rights and advocacy organization.<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39089475/ns/us_news-life/</ref>
Upon being elected President, Bill Clinton's first act was to propose and win legislation to enforce the [[Department of Defense]]'s "Don't Ask Don't Tell" rule. The law passed by the Democratic Congress has been described as a major discriminatory policy which promoted and legitimized [[homophobia]] and [[bigot]]ry. ''[[Time magazine]]'' reported it caused untold hardship and emotional anguish for thousands of American service personal.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y</ref> The Law was found [[unconstitutional]] after a suit brought by [[Log Cabin Republicans]], a homosexual rights and advocacy organization.<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39089475/ns/us_news-life/</ref>
===Community Reinvestment Act===
===Community Reinvestment Act===
===Mexican Peso bailout===
===Mexican Peso bailout===
=== Taxes===
=== Taxes increases ===
[[Image:ClintonPresident.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Bill Clinton's Presidential cabinet]] Clinton's first priority while coming into office was the economy. In an attempt to lower [[interest rates]] Clinton sent Congress a deficit reduction plan in early 1993. However, Clinton's problem was that about half of government money goes to entitlement programs such as [[social security]] and [[medicare]]. Refusing to cut domestic spending, he increased taxes on gasoline, heating oil, and natural gas, breaking his campaign pledge not to raise tax rates. On Aug. 10, 1993, the largest tax increase in history was signed into law, raising taxes by almost $280 billion over five years.<ref>J.D. Foster, Ph.D. [http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/03/tax-cuts-not-the-clinton-tax-hike-produced-the-1990s-boom#_ftn1 Tax Cuts, Not the Clinton Tax Hike, Produced the 1990s Boom], ''The Heritage Foundation'', March 4, 2008.</ref> Instead of middle-class tax relief, President Clinton chose to include in his $241 billion tax plan higher federal gasoline taxes, tax hikes on Social Security recipients, and steep income tax hikes on small business owners.<ref> ''The President's Forgotten Middle Class,'' Joint Economic Committee, Majority Staff, 3/22/96.</ref> Conservatives blocked some proposals, such a new $71 billion [[BTU energy tax]] that would have cost the typical family nearly $500 per year.
[[Image:ClintonPresident.jpg|right|thumb|275px|Bill Clinton's Presidential cabinet]] Clinton's first priority while coming into office was the economy. In an attempt to lower [[interest rates]] Clinton sent Congress a deficit reduction plan in early 1993. However, Clinton's problem was that about half of government money goes to entitlement programs such as [[social security]] and [[medicare]]. Refusing to cut domestic spending, he increased taxes on gasoline, heating oil, and natural gas, breaking his campaign pledge not to raise tax rates. On Aug. 10, 1993, the largest tax increase in history was signed into law, raising taxes by almost $280 billion over five years.<ref>J.D. Foster, Ph.D. [http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/03/tax-cuts-not-the-clinton-tax-hike-produced-the-1990s-boom#_ftn1 Tax Cuts, Not the Clinton Tax Hike, Produced the 1990s Boom], ''The Heritage Foundation'', March 4, 2008.</ref> Instead of middle-class tax relief, President Clinton chose to include in his $241 billion tax plan higher federal gasoline taxes, tax hikes on Social Security recipients, and steep income tax hikes on small business owners.<ref> ''The President's Forgotten Middle Class,'' Joint Economic Committee, Majority Staff, 3/22/96.</ref> Conservatives blocked some proposals, such a new $71 billion [[BTU energy tax]] that would have cost the typical family nearly $500 per year.
====Tax increases on Social Security benefits====
====Tax increases on the elderly====
In 1993 President Clinton sought to increase taxes on [[Social Security]] benefits of the elderly and disabled.<ref>http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/seniorsd.txt</ref> The final version of the bill passed by the [[Democrat]]ically controlled Congress increased taxes on beneficiaries from the first 50% to 85%<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20040408115747/www.ssa.gov/OACT/HOP/hopi.htm</ref> of benefits (or "annuity payments" as they were originally called). [[Vice President]] [[Al Gore]] cast the deciding tie-breaker vote in the Senate to make the tax increase law. The Clinton-Gore tax increase on Social Security benefits imposed a 70% [[income tax]] rate on a retired couple making as little as $22,000 per year.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=vLg4iJR0J9kC&pg=PA16593&lpg=PA16593&dq=Vice+President+Gore+cast+the+tie-breaking+vote%2Bsocial+security&source=bl&ots=-ImIDX6fHa&sig=ttWVUNAIVsLQoEg1ZhCntHB_02Y&hl=en&ei=dobVTMr9HoOglAe0iuX9CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Vice%20President%20Gore%20cast%20the%20tie-breaking%20vote%2Bsocial%20security&f=false Congressional Record, Comments by Rep. Christopher Cox,] July 27, 2000.</ref>
In 1993 President Clinton sought to increase taxes on [[Social Security]] benefits of the elderly and disabled.<ref>http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/seniorsd.txt</ref> The final version of the bill passed by the [[Democrat]]ically controlled Congress increased taxes on beneficiaries from the first 50% to 85%<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20040408115747/www.ssa.gov/OACT/HOP/hopi.htm</ref> of benefits (or "annuity payments" as they were originally called). [[Vice President]] [[Al Gore]] cast the deciding tie-breaker vote in the Senate to make the tax increase law. The Clinton-Gore tax increase on Social Security benefits imposed a 70% [[income tax]] rate on a retired couple making as little as $22,000 per year.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=vLg4iJR0J9kC&pg=PA16593&lpg=PA16593&dq=Vice+President+Gore+cast+the+tie-breaking+vote%2Bsocial+security&source=bl&ots=-ImIDX6fHa&sig=ttWVUNAIVsLQoEg1ZhCntHB_02Y&hl=en&ei=dobVTMr9HoOglAe0iuX9CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Vice%20President%20Gore%20cast%20the%20tie-breaking%20vote%2Bsocial%20security&f=false Congressional Record, Comments by Rep. Christopher Cox,] July 27, 2000.</ref>
===Dirty tricks and blackmail===
FBI special agent Gary Aldrich reported, James Carville and former Clinton adviser, now [[ABC News]] anchor [[George Stephanopoulos]] confirmed, after the Gingrich revolution of 1994 the Clinton administration ran a dirt-digging operation out of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff. "They hired upwards of 36 lawyers to staff the operation to handle 40 different cases," Aldrich, on White House duty at the time, said. "Once it became known that they had such an operation, then the blackmail itself took place." Carville and Stephanopoulos stated publicly there would be a "scorched-earth policy", and that everyone who had "skeletons in their closet" would be exposed.<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_23_16/ai_62896460/</ref> [[CNN]] has reported private divorce papers of Newt Gingrich were indeed removed from what was alleged sealed storage at the Carroll County, Georgia courthouse, "when he (Gingrich) became the center of attention." The documents were later made public by CNN.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/26/politics/gingrich-divorce-file/index.html</ref>
In 1995 President Clinton and Congressional Republicans fought a bitter battle over the new federal [[budget]]. Clinton vetoed the Republican budget bill, claiming that it cut social programs. Speaker Gingrich believed that Clinton would back down and approve the budget. If not the entire government would shut down because of lack of funds. Clinton allowed just that, and by doing so gained political capital by successfully blaming that shut down on Republicans. Soon afterword, Clinton agreed to the Republican's goal of a balanced budget.
=== Failed healthcare takeover ===
=== Failed healthcare takeover ===
Skocpol (1996) suggests the major mistake may have been in emphasizing the cost-reducing aspect of the plan, not realizing that Americans were willing to pay for a government program that would provide generous benefits to them. The fear that Clinton's proposals would lead to the sort of health care rationing prevalent in Canada and other countries further troubled the voters. Starr (1997) notes that Clinton sought to achieve liberal ends of universal coverage through the conservative means of managed competition among private health plans, with a backup cap on the rate of growth in average insurance premiums. This approach had a political as well as policy rationale. It was meant to be the basis of an alliance that could include conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans and thereby achieve the majorities necessary for congressional passage. But what we saw as compromise, they did not -- especially as the very locus of the political center shifted to the right during the debate. Health care reform that seemed "inevitable" to many serious observers at the start became unthinkable by the end. Polls showed strong initial support, but he never secured passage in either house of Congress and Republican victory in the 1994 elections doomed his plans.
Skocpol (1996) suggests the major mistake may have been in emphasizing the cost-reducing aspect of the plan, not realizing that Americans were willing to pay for a government program that would provide generous benefits to them. The fear that Clinton's proposals would lead to the sort of health care rationing prevalent in Canada and other countries further troubled the voters. Starr (1997) notes that Clinton sought to achieve liberal ends of universal coverage through the conservative means of managed competition among private health plans, with a backup cap on the rate of growth in average insurance premiums. This approach had a political as well as policy rationale. It was meant to be the basis of an alliance that could include conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans and thereby achieve the majorities necessary for congressional passage. But what we saw as compromise, they did not -- especially as the very locus of the political center shifted to the right during the debate. Health care reform that seemed "inevitable" to many serious observers at the start became unthinkable by the end. Polls showed strong initial support, but he never secured passage in either house of Congress and Republican victory in the 1994 elections doomed his plans.
== 1994 Midterm elections ==
Clinton's popularity had slipped by 1994 and the GOP, under [[Newt Gingrich]] launched a national midterm campaign based on a Republican "Contract with America." They proposed lower taxes, welfare reform, tougher anti-crime laws, term limits for Congress, revised rules in Congress and a balanced budget amendment.
Clinton's popularity had slipped by 1994 and the GOP, under [[Newt Gingrich]] launched a national midterm campaign based on a Republican "Contract with America." They proposed lower taxes, welfare reform, tougher anti-crime laws, term limits for Congress, revised rules in Congress and a balanced budget amendment.
In their first 100 days the House did pass the Contract with America, however, the GOP Senate failed to go along and Clinton's vetoes defeated the Contract.
In their first 100 days the House did pass the Contract with America, however, the GOP Senate failed to go along and Clinton's vetoes defeated the Contract.
==1996 Reelection Campaign==
==1996 Reelection Campaign==